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ECLECTIC ENGLISH CLASSICS 



SHAKESPEARE'S 



MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S 
DREAM 



EDITED RY 

JOHN LOUIS HANEY, PH. D. 

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH PHILOLOGY, CENTRAL HIGH 
SCHOOL, PHILADELPHIA 



NEW YORK •:• CINCINNATI •:• CHICAGO 

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 






Copyright, 1894 and 191 1, by 
American Book Company 

Midsummer-Night's Dream 



^Gl./\2S0474 



b INTRODUCTION. 



)(v The first mention of Shakespeare's *'A Midsummer-Night's 
Dream" occurs in 1598 in Francis Meres's "Palladis Tamia." 
Much futile effort has been expended in an attempt to determine 
the date of composition of this popular comedy. While it has 
been attributed for various reasons to dates as early as 1590 and 
as late as 1598, the scanty available evidence seems to indicate 
that 1594-95 was the probable period of composition. Fortu- 
nately our uncertainty in this matter is of no great importance 
to the student. 

There were two quarto editions of the play, both of which belong 
to the year 1600. One of these was printed for Thomas Fisher, 
the other by James Roberts. It is impossible to determine which 
of these is the earlier edition. No further issues of the play are 
recorded previous to its appearance in the authoritative First 
Folio of 1623. 

''A Midsummer-Night's Dream" has enjoyed at all times a 
widespread popularity which has endured to our own day. With 
the notable exception of Samuel Pepys, who wrote in his famous 
diary that it was "the most insipid ridiculous play" that he had 
ever seen in his life, the voice of critical opinion has paid almost 
unanimous tribute to its wealth of delightful and fascinating 
poetry, and to the charm of the exquisite fancy that abounds in 
its richly varied scenes. 

The play opens in the palace of Theseus, Duke of Athens, but 

3 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

the scene of action of its main incidents is in a wood near the city. 
Egeus, accompanied by his daughter Hermia, Lysander, and 
Demetrius, comes with complaint against his child, whose heart 
Lysander has gained, while Demetrius has the father's consent to 
marry her. Egeus claims the privilege of the law of Athens to 
constrain his daughter's choice. Lysander pleads that he is as 
well derived as his rival, his fortunes as good, his love greater, and 
that Demetrius has won the soul of old Nedar's daughter Helena, 
who still devoutly dotes on this inconstant man. But Theseus 
warns Hermia that she must submit to her father's will or suffer 
the penalty, which is death or perpetual seclusion from the society 
of men. He allows her till the next new moon, when his nuptials 
with Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons, are to be celebrated, 
to make her election. 

The lovers being left alone, Lysander proposes that they fly to 
the home of his dowager aunt, seven leagues distant, where the 
Athenian law does not prevail, and there be married. In further- 
ance of this design, Hermia is to steal from her father's house and 
join her lover in the wood "to-morrow night." As they are go- 
ing out, Helena, who it seems is an intimate friend of Hermia, 
meets them, and they disclose to her the plan of their intended 
flight. This she determines to betray to Demetrius, believing 
that he will be apt to seek them in the wood, where she by following 
may have sight of him. 

In the next scene we are at Quince's house in Athens, where he 
and other mechanics are arranging the cast of a play which they 
intend to present "before the duke and the duchess, on his wedding 
day at night." There is much trouble with Nick Bottom, the 
weaver, who, though the leading role is assigned to him, thinks 
each part as named and described the one for which he is pecul- 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

iarly fitted. He is finally pacified however, the cast is adjusted, 
and they adjourn to meet the next night at the wood, where they 
may rehearse their parts with more privacy and freedom than in the 
city. 

The second act opens in a wood near Athens, where a fairy 
attendant of Queen Titania's meets Puck, ''that shrewd and 
knavish sprite call'd Robin Goodfellow" and learns from him 
that the fairy king Oberon intends to hold his revels there that 
night. The royal elves have come from "the farthest steep of 
India" to do honor to the nuptials of Theseus and his Amazonian 
queen, but they are just now quarreling over the possession of a 
"little changeling boy" whom Oberon desires for his henchman 
and whom Titania refuses to surrender. Much provoked by her 
obstinacy, Oberon determines to punish his spouse. He dispatches 
his mischievous attendant Puck for "a little western flower" 
called love-in-idleness, the juice of which 

"on sleeping eyelids laid, 
Will make or man or woman madly dote 
Upon the next live creature that it sees." 

With this he means to anoint Titania's eyes. While Puck is 

. away, Demetrius, followed by Helena, comes in, and Oberon, 

i invisible, overhears her entreaties and Demetrius's rude rejection 

< of her love, and resolves to charm him to renew his affection for 

1 the "sweet Athenian lady." Puck returns with the flower, and 

' Oberon, after squeezing a portion of the juice on the eyes of the 

; sleeping Titania, sends Puck to do the same with Demetrius, 

^ whom he will know "by the Athenian garments he hath on," 

charging him to be careful in applying the charm that the next 

thing the youth may see shall be the "despised Athenian maid." 

In the meantime Lysander and Hermia have come to their tryst- 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

ing place, and, wearied with the long walk, have fallen asleep. 
Puck, looking for Demetrius, mistakes Lysander for that youth 
and charms the true lover's eyes, who, awaking at the moment 
Helena passes, still pursuing Demetrius, follows her with passion- 
ate protestations of love, leaving Hermia sleeping. Hermia, start- 
ing suddenly from a frightful dream, calls for Lysander, and hav- 
ing no reply, runs off in great distress in search of him. 

In Act III we come upon Quince and his company rehearsing 
their play in the wood. Puck, indignant at the intrusion of these 
''hempen homespuns" on the haunts of the fairies, and so near 
the cradle of their queen, takes occasion when Bottom is separated 
for a moment from his companions to fasten an ass's head on his 
shoulders. He, unconscious of his transformation, returns to his 
fellows; they, terrified by the apparition, take to their heels, crying 
out to Bottom that he is "translated," and leaving him to solilo- 
quize on the knavish trick they are playing to make him afraid. 
To show that he is not afraid he attempts to sing, which awakens 
Titania, who is immediately enamored of the monster, fondles 
his long ears, wreathes them with flowers, and bids her tiny pages, 
Peaseblossom, Mustardseed, and the rest, "nod to him and do 
him courtesies." 

In the following scene Puck is relating to Oberon the events of 
the night, when Hermia and Demetrius enter, he ardent in his 
professions of love, and Hermia, who has failed to find Lysander, 
accusing Demetrius, in angry and scornful words, of the murder 
of her lover. This Demetrius denies, but, seeing that it would be 
vain to follow Hermia in her violent humor, lies down and is soon 
asleep. Oberon discovers by their conversation the mistake that 
Puck has made in using the magic balsam, and dispatches him to 
find Helena. Oberon now smears Demetrius's eyes with the potent 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

essence. IXemetrius, waking as Puck comes in with Helena, whom 
Ly Sander is still following, addresses her with fervent vcws of 
love. Now Hermia, hearing Lysander's voice, returns, and mak- 
ing some remark which induces Helena to believe that they are 
all in conspiracy to mock and annoy her, a tierce quarrel arises 
between the two maidens, while Demetrius and Lysander, each 
claiming Helena's love, withdraw to settle their jealous rivalry at 
the sword's point. But Puck, by Oberon's direction, overcasts 
the night with "drooping fog as black as Acheron," and then, by 
imitating now the voice of Demetrius and now that of Lysander, 
leads them a tangled round in fruitless search of each other, till, 
tired out, they fall asleep. Hermia and Helena, severally wander- 
ing in the darkness, come in exhausted, and also fall down and 
sleep. Puck, appearing, purges Lysander's eyes with a counter- 
charm, so that upon waking and spying Hermia, all his love for 
her shall return. 

In Act IV Oberon witnesses the affection that Titania lavishes 
on Bottom and after obtaining from her the changeling boy he 
removes the spell that caused her infatuation for the "translated" 
weaver. At the same time he directs Puck to relieve drowsy 
Bottom of his ass's head. The fairy king now becomes reconciled 
with his queen and they agree to dance solemnly on the morrow 
at the nuptials of Theseus and Hippolyta. As they disappear, a 
hunting party including Theseus and Egeus enter the wood and 
discover the sleeping lovers who are aroused by the noise of horn 
and hounds. Lysander and Demetrius relate to the duke the 
strange adventures of the night. Egeus, enraged at the attempted 
flight of his daughter with Lysander, demands the full penalty of 
the law; but Theseus, finding the lovers no longer at odds in the 
bestowal of their affections, denies Egeus's request and abandons 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

the hunt to make preparations in Athens for the threefold mar- 
riage ceremonies. The happy party now withdraws and Bottom 
awakes from his "rare vision" to rejoin his associates who are 
depicted in the following scene as gathered at Quince's house in 
Athens. There they are deploring the fact that Bottom's lamen- 
table transformation will cause the failure of their projected 
performance at the duke's wedding. Their regret gives way to 
vociferous acclaim at the unexpected appearance of their hero in 
his proper person. Bottom assures them that he will discourse 
wonders after they have presented their "sweet comedy" at the 
palace of Theseus. 

The fifth act is almost entirely given over to the performance of 
the ridiculous tragedy of "Pyramus and Thisbe," which the 
Athenian artisans have so laboriously rehearsed. Although Phi- 
lostrate, the master of the revels, announces that the play is too 
absurd for presentation, Theseus insists that the worthy inten- 
tions of his "hard-handed" subjects shall not be despised. Ac- 
cordingly the performance takes place before Theseus, his bride 
Hippolyta and the now happily mated Athenian lovers. The 
spectacle affords them ample opportunity for interpolated quips 
and pleasantries at the expense of the untutored actors, whom 
they hear to the end of the lamentable effort. At the conclusion 
the royal pair and their guests withdraw. As "the iron tongue of 
midnight hath told twelve," it is now the fairy time of night. 
Puck enters and in mystic verses heralds the coming of Oberon, 
Titania and their train. After presenting their fairy song and the 
promised solemn dance, Oberon pronounces his blessing upon the 
three couples. The play concludes with a charming epilogue, 
very appropriately spoken by Puck, who has been throughout the 
master-spirit of this most enchanting dream, 



I INTRODUCTION. 9 

^^ Professor Dowden writes of this play: '' 'A Midsummer-Night's 
^B)ream' is a strange and beautiful web woven delicately by a 
youthful poet's fancy. What is perhaps most remarkable about 
the play is the harmonious blending in it of widely different 
elements. . . . Taking a little from this quarter and a little from 
that, Shakespeare created out of such slight materials his marvelous 
'Dream.' The marriage of Duke Theseus and Hippolyta — ^who 
. are classical in name only, being in reality romantic medieval 
figures — surrounds the whole, as it were, with a magnificent 
frame. Theseus is Shakespeare's early ideal of a heroic warrior 
and man of action. His life is one of splendid achievement and 
joy, his love is a kind of happy victory, his marriage a triumph. 
From early morning, when his hounds — themselves heroic creatures 
— fill the valley with their 'musical confusion,' until midnight, 
when the Athenian clowns end their very tragical mirth with a 
Bergomask dance, Theseus displays his joyous energy and the 
graciousness of power. In contrast with him and his warrior 
bride the figures of the young lovers look slight and graceful, and 
their love perplexities and errors are seen to be among the minor 
and remediable afflictions of the world. Shakespeare was not 
interested in making much distinction between Demetrius and 
Lysander; they are little more than a first lover and a second 
. lover. Nor is Helena distinguishable from Hermia by much else 
than that in person she is the taller of the two, and the gentler in 
disposition. Where there are so many contrasts, the play can 
admit, and perhaps needs, some uniformities. ... As the two 
extremes of exquisite delicacy, of dainty elegance, and on the 
other hand of thick-witted grossness and clumsiness, stand the 
fairy tribe and the group of Athenian handicraftsmen. The world 
of the poet's ' Dream' includes the two — a Titania and a Bottom, 



lo INTRODUCTION, 

the weaver — and can bring them into grotesque conjunction. No 
such fairy poetry existed in English literature before Shakespeare. 
The tiny elves, to whom a cowslip is tall, for whom the third part 
of a minute is an important division of time, have a miniature 
perfection which is charming. They delight in all beautiful and 
dainty things, and war with things that creep and things that fly 
if they be uncomely; their lives are gay with fine frolic and delicate 
revelry. Puck, the jester of fairyland, stands apart from the rest, 
the recognizable 'lob of spirits,' a rough 'fawn-faced, shock-pated 
little fellow, a very Shetlander among the gossamer-winged, 
dainty-limbed shapes around him.* 

"The rehearsing of their play and its performance before the 
Duke afford a happy occasion for grouping together the carpenter, 
the tinker, the bellows mender, and their fellows who have turned 
actors for the nonce. Bottom in his broad-blown self-importance, 
his all but impenetrable self-satisfaction, stands a head and 
shoulders higher in absurdity than any other comic personage in 
Shakespeare's early plays. He is the admitted king of his company, 
the cock of his walk, and he has a consciousness that his gifts are 
more than equal to his opportunities. When the ass's head is on 
his shoulders it seems hardly a disguise, so naturally does the hu- 
man asinine seem to come to Bottom; nor is he more embarrassed 
in offering to Duke Theseus his explanations of the play. This 
comedy of the Athenian handicraftsmen, it should be noted, is 
an indirect answer to any objections which might be brought 
against Shakespeare's attempt to represent the fairy world, and 
the world of classical romance, which could be so ill set visibly 
before the spectators of an Elizabethan theater. In 'Pyramus 
and Thisbe' an actual man with a lantern stands for the moon; 
another represents wall with plaster on his fingers. Bottom and 



INTRODUCTION. J I 

his crew assume that the spectators have no imaginations: Shake- 
speare in his fairy 'Dream' assumes that they can imagine as 

poetically real anything beautiful or grotesque which the poet 

» 
suggests to them. 

"The action of the play is comprised within three days, ending 

at twelve o'clock on the night of May Day. The notes of time 

given in the opening lines are inconsistent with this statement, but 

the inconsistency is Shakespeare's own.'* 

Dr. Nathan Drake ("Shakespeare and His Times") has this 
notice of the fairies of this play: "The fairies of Shakespeare have 
been truly denominated the favorite children of his romantic 
fancy, and perhaps in no part of his works has he exhibited a more 
creative and visionary pencil or a finer tone of enthusiasm than in 
bodying forth these 'airy nothings,' and giving them in brighter 
and ever-durable tints once more 'a local habitation and a name.' 
Of his unlimited sway over this delightful world of ideal forms no 
stronger proof can be given than that he has imparted an entire 
new cast of character to the beings he has evoked from its bosom, 
purposely omitting the darker shades of their character, and whilst 
throwing around them a flood of light, playful yet exquisitely soft 
and tender, endowing them with the moral attributes of purity 
and benevolence. In fact, he not only dismisses altogether the 
fairies of malignant nature, but clothes the milder yet mixed 
tribe of his predecessors with a more fascinating spontaneousness 
and with a much larger share of unalloyed goodness. . . . 

"Such, in fact, has been the success of our bard in expanding 
and coloring the germs of Gothic fairyism, in assigning to its tiny 
agents new attributes and power, and in clothing their ministra- 
tion with the most light and exquisite imagery, that his portraits, 



i2 INTRODUCTION. 

in all their essential parts, have descended to us as indissolubly 
connected with, and indeed nearly if not altogether forming, our 

ideas of the fairy tribe." 

f 

Verplanck (Introduction to ''A Midsummer-Night's Dream"), 
in a general criticism of the play, observes: ''This is in several 
respects the most remarkable composition of its author, and has 
probably contributed more to his general fame, as it has given a 
more peculiar evidence of the variety and brilliancy of his genius, 
than any other of his dramas. Not that it is in itself the noblest 
of his works, or even one of the highest order among them; but 
it is not only exquisite of its kind, it is also original and peculiar 
in its whole character, and of a class by itself. ... For 'The 
Tempest,' which it resembles in its preternatural personages and 
machinery of the plot, is in other respects wholly dissimilar, is 
of quite another mood in feeling and thought, and with, perhaps, 
higher attributes of genius, wants its peculiar fascination. Thus 
it is that the loss of this singularly beautiful production would, 
more than that of any other of his works, have abridged the 
measure of its author's fame, as it would have left us without 
the means of forming any estimate of the brilliant lightness of 
his 'forgetive' fancy in its most sportive and luxuriant vein. 
The poet and his contemporaries seem to have regarded this 
piece, as they well might, as in some sort a nondescript in dramatic 
literature, for it happens that, while the other plays published 
during the author's life are regularly denominated in their title- 
page as 'the pleasant comedy,' 'the true dramatic history,' or 'the 
lamentable tragedy,' this has no designation of the kind beyond the 
mere title in either of the original editions. It has, in common 
with all his comedies, a perpetual intermixture of the essentially 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

poetical with the purely laughable, yet it is distinguished from all 
the rest by being (as Coleridge has happily defined its character) 
'one continued specimen of the dramatized lyrical.' Its transitions 
are as rapid, and the images and scenes it presents to the imagina- 
tion as unexpected and as remote from each other, as those of the 
boldest lyric, while it has also that highest perfection of the lyric 
art, the pervading unity of the poetic spirit, that continued glow 
of excited thought, which blends the whole rich and strange variety 
in one common effect of gay and dazzling brilliancy. 

"There is the heroic magnificence of the princely loves of 
Theseus and his Amazon bride, dazzling with the strangely gor- 
geous mixture of classical allusion and fable with the taste, feelings, 
and manners of chivalry; and all embodied in a calm and lofty 
poetry, fitted alike to express the grand simplicity of primeval hero- 
ism and 'the high thoughts in a heart of courtesy,' which belong to 
the best parts of the chivalrous character. This is intertwined 
with the ingeniously perplexed fancies and errors of the Athenian 
lovers, wrought up with a luxuriant profusion of quaint conceits 
and artificial turns of thought, such as the age delighted in. The 
fairy king and queen, equally essential to the plot, are invested 
with a certain mythological dignity, suited to the solemn yet free 
music of the verse, and the elevation and grave elegance of all 
their thoughts and images. Their fairy subjects, again, are the 
gayest and most fantastic of Fancy's children. All these are 
relieved and contrasted by the grotesque absurdity of the mock 
play, and still more by the laughable truth and nature of the 
amateur 'mechanicals' who present it. . . . 

"This clustering of the sweetest flowers of fancy and of heroic 
poetry around the grotesque yet substantial reality of Bottom 
and his associates, gives to the whole play that mixed effect of the 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

grotesquely ludicrous with the irregularly beautiful which the 
poet himself has painted in his picture of Titania 'rounding the 
hairy temples' of the self-satisfied fool 

"With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers." 

"All this profusion of pure poetry and dull reality is worked up 
with the dramatic skill of a practiced artist in embodying these 
apparently discordant plots and personages into one perfectly 
connected and harmonious whole, out of which nothing could well 
be removed without injury to the rest." 



A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 



PERSONS OF THE PLAY. 



in lave with Hermia. 



Theseus, Duke of Athens. 

Egeus, father of Hermia. 

Lysander, 

Demetrius 

Philostrate, master of the revels to 

Theseus. 
Quince, a carpenter. 
Snug, a joiner. 
Bottom, a weaver. 
Flute, a bellows mender. 
Snout, a tinker. 
Starveling, a tailor. 

HiPPOLYTA, Queen of the Amazons, 
betrothed to Theseics. 



Hermia, daughter to Egeus ^ in love 

with Lysander. 
Helena, in love with Demetrius. 

Oberon, king of the fairies. 

TiTANiA, quee7i of the fairies. 

Puck, or Robin Goodfellow. 

Peaseblossom, ^ 

Cobweb, 

Moth, 

Mustardseed, 

Other fairies attending their king and 
queen. 

Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta. 



> fairies. 



Scene : Athens, and a xvood near it. 



ACT I. 



Scene I. Athens. The Palace of Theseus. 

Enter Theseus,! Hippolyta, Philostrate, and Attendants. 

Theseus. Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour 
Draws on apace ; four happy days bring in 
Another moon: but, O, methinks, how slow 

1 Theseus, a famous legendary hero of Greece, was the son of Egeus, king 
of Athens. One of his adventures was an excursion into the land of the 
Amazons — a formidable community of warrior women — from whence he 
brought back Hippolyta, whom he married. Or, according to another tradi- 
tion, it was Antiope, their queen, whom he captured; and the Amazons, 
under pretext of rescuing her, invaded Attica, led by Hippolyta, whom The- 
seus took prisoner, and afterwards married. 

15 



1 6 SHAKESPEARE, [ACT I. 

This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires, 

Like to a stepdame or a dowager 

Long withering out a young man's revenue.^ 

Hippolyta. Four days will quickly steep themselves in night ; 
Four nights will quickly dream away the time ; 
And then the moon, like to a silver bow 
New bent in heaven, shall behold the night 
Of our solemnities. 

Theseus. Go, Philostrate, 

Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments ; 
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth : 
Turn melancholy forth to funerals ; 

The pale companion is not for our pomp. \Exit Philostrate, 

Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword, 
And won thy love, doing thee injuries ; 
But I will wed thee in another key, 
With pomp, with triumph,^ and with reveling. 

Enter Y.^Y^3's>, Hermia, Lysander, a«i/ Demetrius. 

Egeus. Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke! 

Theseus. Thanks, good Egeus :^ what's the news with thee? 

Egeus. Full of vexation come I, with complaint 
Against my child, my daughter Hermia. — 
Stand forth, Demetrius. — My noble lord. 
This man hath my consent to marry her. — 
Stand forth, Lysander: — and, my gracious duke, 
This hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child : — 
Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes. 
And interchang'd love tokens with my child : 

1 " Like to a," etc. " The picture here is of a widow who for long years 
keeps the heir out of possession of that portion of his father's property to a 
life interest in which she is entitled as her dower, and which will be his at 
her death." 

2 " With pomp, with triumph," i.e., with public shows and pageantry. 

3 Pronounced E-ge-us. 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, 17 

Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung 

With feigning voice verses of feigning love, 

And stolen the impression of her fantasy 

With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits. 

Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, — messengers 

Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth : 

With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart, 

Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me, 

To stubborn harshness: — and, my gracious duke, 

Be it so she will not here before your grace 

Consent to marry with Demetrius, 

I beg the ancient privilege of Athens, 

As she is mine, I may dispose of her : 

Which shall be either to this gentleman 

Or to her death, according to our law 

Immediately! provided in that case. 

Theseus. What say you, Hermia? be advis'd,^ fair maid: 
To you your father should be as a god ; 
One that compos'd your beauties, yea, and one 
To whom you are but as a form in wax 
By him imprinted and within his power 
To leave the figure or disfigure it. 
Demetrius is a worthy gentleman. 

Hermia. So is Lysander. 

Theseus. In himself he is ; 

But in this kind, wanting your father's voice,^ 
The other must be held the worthier. 

Hermia. I would my father look'd but with my eyes. 

TJieseics. Rather your eyes must with his judgment look, 

Her7nia. I do entreat your grace to pardon me. 
I know not by what power I am made bold, 
Nor how it may concern my modesty, 

1 Specially. 2 " Be advised," i.e., consider well. 

^ " But in tliis," etc., i.e., but in this matter, lacking your father's ap- 
proval. 



1 8 SHAKESPEARE. [ACT I. 

In such a presence here to plead my thoughts ; 
But I beseech your grace that I may know 
The worst that may befall me in this case, 
If I refuse to wed Demetrius. 

Theseus. Either to die the death or to abjure 
Forever the society of men. 
Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires ; 
Know of your youth, examine well your blood, 
Whether if you yield not to your father's choice, 
You can endure the livery of a nun, 
For aye ^ to be in shady cloister mew'd,^ 
To live a barren sister all your life. 
Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon. 
Thrice blessed they that master so their blood, 
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage ;•- 
But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd. 
Than that which withering on the virgin thorn 
Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness. 

Hermia. So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord. 
Ere I will yield my virgin patent up 
Unto his lordship,^ whose unwished yoke 
My soul consents not to give sovereignty. 

Theseus. Take time to pause ; and, by the next new moon — 
The sealing day betwixt my love and me 
For everlasting bond of fellowship — 
Upon that day either prepare to die 
For disobedience to your father's will. 
Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would; 
Or on Diana's ^ altar to protest 
For aye austerity and single life. 

1 Ever. 2 Confined. 

3 Government. 

4 Diana, daughter of Jupiter, was not only goddess of the moon, but also 
of the chase. As soon as she had been introduced in Olympus, all the gods 
expressed a wish to marry her ; but she refused to listen to their entreaties, 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM, 1 9 

Demetrius. Relent, sweet Hermia: — and, Lysander, yield 
Thy crazed title to my certain right. 

Lysander. You have her father's love, Demetrius ; 
Let me have Hermia's : do you marry him. 

Egeus. Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love, 
And what is mine my love shall render him ; 
And she is mine, and all my right of her 
I do estate 1 unto Demetrius. 

Lysander. I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he, 
As well possess'd ; my love is more than his ; 
My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd, 
If not with vantage, as Demetrius' ; 
And, which is more than all these boasts can be, 
I am belov'd of beauteous Hermia: 
Why should not I then prosecute my right ? 
Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head. 
Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena, 
And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes, 
Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry, 
Upon this spotted 2 and inconstant man. 

Theseus. I must confess that I have heard so much. 
And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof ; 
But, being overfull of self-affairs. 
My mind did lose it. — But, Demetrius, come ; — 
And come, Egeus ; you shall go with me, 
I have some private schooling for you both. — 
For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself 
To fit your fancies to your father's will ; 
Or else the law of Athens yields you up — 
Which by no means we may extenuate — 
To death, or to a vow of single life. — 

begged her father's permission to remain single all her life, and pleaded her 
cause so ably that Jupiter was forced to grant her request. (See Guerber's 
Myths of Greece and Rome.) 

1 Transfer. 2 Perjured; treacherous. 



20 SHAKESPEARE. [act i. 

Come, my Hippolyta: what cheer, my love ? — 

Demetrius and Egeus, go along : 

I must employ you in some business 

Against our nuptial, and confer with you 

Of something nearly that concerns yourselves. 

Egeus. With duty and desire we follow you. 

\Exeu7it all but Lysander and Hermia. 

Ly Sander. How now, my love! why is your cheek so pale ? 
How chance the roses there do fade so fast ? 

Hermia. Belike ^ for want of rain, which I could well 
Beteem^ them from the tempest of my eyes. 

Lysander. Ay me ! for aught that I could ever read, 
Could ever hear by tale or history, 
The course of true love never did run smooth ; 
But, either it was different in blood, — 

Hermia. O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low. 

Lysaiider. Or else misgraffed^ in respect of years, — 

Hermia. O spite! too old to be engag'd to young. 

Lysajider. Or else it stood upon the choice of friends, — 

Hermia. O hell! to choose love by another's eyes. 

Lysander. Or, if there were a sympathy in choice, 
War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it, 
Making it momentany ^ as a sound. 
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream ; 
Brief as the lightning in the colhed^ night, 
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth, 
And ere a man hath power to say " Behold ! " 
The jaws of darkness do devour it up : 
So quick bright things come to confusion. 

Hermia. If then true lovers have been ever cross'd, 
It stands as an edict' in destiny : 
Then let us teach our trial patience, 

1 Perhaps. 2 Yield. 

3 Misgrafted; unmatched. ^ Momentary. ^ Darkened. 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMiMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 21 

Because it is a customary cross, 

As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs, 

Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers.^ 

Lysander. A good persuasion : therefore, hear me, Hermia, 
I have a widow aunt, a dowager 
Of great reven^ue, and she hath no child : 
From Athens is her house remote seven leagues ; 
And she respects me as her only son. 
There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee ; 
And to that place the sharp Athenian law 
Cannot pursue us. If thou lov'st me then, 
Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night ; 
And in the wood, a league without the town, 
Where I did meet thee once with Helena, 
To do observance to a morn of May ,2 
There will I stay for thee. 

Hermia. My good Lysander! 

I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow, 
By his best arrow with the golden head,^ 
By the simpUcity of Venus' doves,^ 
By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves. 
And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen,^ 
When the false Trojan under sail was seen, 

1 " Fancy's followers," i.e., love's attendants. 

2 " To do observance," etc. The observance of the Festival of May was 
general in England. Every village had its Maypole painted in gay colors,, 
around which the villagers danced and sung in their May festivities. Young 
folks of both sexes would rise early on May Day morning, and, trooping to 
some neighboring wood, gather branches and wild flowers ; and returning home 
about sunrise, decorate their doors and windows with their flowery spoils. 

3 Mythologists tell us that Cupid is armed with arrows of two kinds ; the 
one, of gold, causing love, the other, of lead, repelling it. 

* Venus is represented in a chariot drawn by doves. Sparrows and swans 
are also favorites of the goddess of love. 

5 Dido, who immolated herself on a funeral pyre when deserted by ^neas. 
(See Guerber.) 



22 SHAKESPEARE. [ACT I. 

By all the vows that ever men have broke, 
In number more than ever women spoke, 
In that same place thou hast appointed me, 
To-morrow truly will I meet with thee. 

Lysander. Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena. 



Enter Helena. 



% 



Hermia. God speed fair Helena! whither away? 

Helena. Call you me fair ? that fair again unsay. 
Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair! 
Your eyes are lodestars ; and your tongue's sweet air 
More tunable than lark to shepherd's ear. 
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear. 
Sickness is catching: O, were favor ^ so. 
Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go ; 
My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye. 
My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody. 
Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated, 
The rest I'll give to be to you translated.^ 
O, teach me how you. look, and with what art 
You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart. 

Hermia. I frown upon him, yet he loves me still. 

Heleiia, O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill! 

Hermia. I give him curses, yet he gives me love. 

Helena. O that my pra5rers could such affection move! 

Hermia. The more I hate, the more he follows me. 

Helena. The more I love, the more he hateth me. 

Hermia. His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine. 

Helena. None, but your beauty : would that fault were mine! 

Hermia. Take comfort : he no more shall see my face ; 
Lysander and myself will fly this place. 
Before the time I did Lysander see, 
Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me : 

1 Looks ; appearance. 2 Transformed. 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 23 

O, then, what graces in my love do dwell, 
That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell! 

Ly Sander, Helen, to you our minds we will unfold: 
To-morrow night, when Phoebe 1 doth behold 
Her silver visage in the watery glass, 
Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass, 
A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal. 
Through Athens' gates have we de^ds'd to steal. 

Herniia. And in the wood, where often you and I 
Upon faint primrose beds were wont to lie. 
Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet, 
There my Lysander and myself shall meet ; 
And thence from Athens turn away our eyes, 
To seek new friends and stranger companies. 
Farewell, sweet playfellow : pray thou for us ; 
And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius! — 
Keep word, Lysander : we must starve our sight 
From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight. 

Lysander. I will, my Hermia. \Exit Hermia.^ 

Helena, adieu : 
As you on him, Demetrius dote on you! {Exit, 

Helena. How happy some o'er other some can be! 
Through Athens I am thought as fair as she. 
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so; 
He will not know what all but he do know : 
And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes, 
So I, admiring of his qualities. 
Things base and vile, holding no quantity ,2 
Love can transpose to form and dignity : 
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind ; 
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted bhnd : 
Nor hath Love's mind of any judgment taste ; 

1 Another name of Diana, goddess of the moon. 

2 " Holding no quantity," i.e., bearing no proportion to what love esti- 
mates them. 



24 SHAKESPEARE. [act i. 

Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste : 

And therefore is Love said to be a child, 

Because in choice he is so oft beguil'd. 

As waggish boys in game themselves forswear, 

So the boy Love is perjur'd everywhere : 

For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,! 

He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine ; 

And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt, 

So he dissolv'd, and showers of oaths did melt. 

I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight : 

Then to the wood will he to-morrow night 

Pursue her ; and for this intelligence 

If I have thanks, it is a dear expense i^ 

But herein mean I to enrich my pain, 

To have his sight thither and back again. \Exit. 

Scene 1 1. Athens. Quince's House. 

Enter Quince, Snug, Bottom, Flute, Snout, afid Starveling. 

Qicince. Is all our company here? 

Bottom. You were best to call them generally,^ man by man, 
according to the scrip.^ 

Qiiifice. Here is the scroll of every man's name, which is 
thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our interlude before 
the duke and the duchess, on his wedding day at night. 

Bottom. First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats 
on, then read the names of the actors, and so grow to a point. 

Quince. Marry, our play is, The most lamentable Comedy, 
and most cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisby.^ 

1 Eyes. 

2 " Dear expense," i.e., it will cost me dear, because it will be in return 
for my procuring him a sight of my rival. 

3 " Severally" is what Bottom means. ^ Written list. 

5 Pyramus and Thisbe were youthful lovers of Babylon, whose parents 
opposed their marriage. They agreed on a meeting at Ninus' tomb, without 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 25 

Bottom. A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a merry. 
Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your actors by the scroll. — 
Masters, spread yourselves. 

Quince. Answer as I call you. — Nick Bottom, the weaver. 

Bottom. Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed. 

Quifice. You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus. 

Bottom. What is Pyramus ? a lover, or a tyrant ? 

Quince. A lover, that kills himself most gallantly for love. 

Bottom. That will ask some tears in the true performing of it: 
if I do it, let the audience look to their eyes ; I will move storms, 
I will condole 1 in some measure. To the rest. — Yet my chief 
humor is for a tyrant: I could play Ercles^ rarely, or a part to 
tear a cat in, to make all split. 

The raging rocks 
And shivering shocks 
Shall break the locks 

Of prison gates ; 
And Phibbiis^^ car 
Shall shine from far, 
And make and mar 

The foolish Fates. 

This was lofty! Now name the rest of the players. This is 
Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein ; a lover is more condoling. 

the walls of the city. Thisbe was the first at the appointed place, and, 
affrighted by a lioness which had just torn an ox to pieces, fled to a cave 
near by, dropping her scarf as she ran, which the beast seized and smeared 
with its bloody jaws. Pyramus comes, sees the stained garment, and sup- 
posing Thisbe has fallen a prey to some wild animal, in an agony of grief 
kills himself. Thisbe returning, finds the dead body of her lover, and in 
despair takes her Hfe with the weapon he had used. 

1 " Be pathetic," Bottom means. 

2 Hercules. " The Twelve Labors of Hercules " had been dramatized in 
Shakespeare's day with scenes " to tear a cat in " and " make all split," in 
which the players, as a contemporary writes, ' * thundered terribly from the 
stage." 

3 Phoebus, god of the sun. 



26 SHAKESPEARE. [act i. 

Quince. Francis Flute, the bellows mender. 

Flute, Here, Peter Quince. 

Quince. Flute, you must take Thisby on you; 

Flute. What is Thisby ? a wand'ring knight ? 

Quince. It is the lady that Pyramus must love. 

Flute, Nay, faith, let not me play a woman ;i I have a beard 
coming. 

Quince. That's all one : you shall play it in a mask, and you 
may speak as small as you will. 

Bottom. An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too. I'll 
speak in a monstrous little voice, — " Thisne, Thisne, — Ah Pyra- 
mus, my lover dear ! thy Thisby dear, and lady dear ! " 

Quiftce. No, no; you must play Pyramus: — and. Flute, you 
Thisby. 

Bottom. Well, proceed. 

Quijtce. Robin Starveling, the tailor. 

Starveling. Here, Peter Quince. 

Quince. Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother. — 
Tom Snout, the tinker. 

Snout. Here, Peter Quince. 

Quince. You, Pyramus' father : myself, Thisby's father. — Snug, 
the joiner ; you, the lion's part : and, I hope, here is a play fitted. 

Snug. Have you the lion's part written ? pray you, if it be, 
give it me, for I am slow of study. 

Quince. You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but 
roaring. 

Bottom. Let me play the lion too : I will roar, that I will do 
any man's heart good to hear me ; I will roar, that I will make 
the duke say, " Let him roar again, let him roar again." 

Quince. An you should do it too terribly, you would fright the 
duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek ; and that were 
enough to hang us all. 

1 Women's parts were played by men in England up to the time of 
Charles II., with or without masks, varying with the youth and good looks 
of the actors. 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM, 27 

All. That would hang us, every mother's son. 

Bottom. I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the 
ladies out of their wits, they would have no more discretion but 
to hang us : but I will aggravate ^ my voice so that I will roar 
you as gently as any sucking dove ; I will roar you an 'twere any 
nightingale. 

Qtimce. You can play no part but Pyramus ; for Pyramus is a 
sweet-fac'd man ; a proper ^ man, as one shall see in a summer's 
day ; a most lovely gentleman-like man : therefore you must 
needs play Pyramus. 

Bottom. Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best 
to play it in ? 

Quince. Why, what you will. 
* Botto7n. I will discharge it in either your straw-color beard, 
your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain beard, or your 
French-crown-color beard — your perfect yellow. 

Quince, Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and 
then you will play baref ac'd. — But, masters, here are your parts : 
and I am to entreat you, request you, and desire you, to con 
them by to-morrow night ; and meet me in the palace wood, a 
mile without the town, by moonlight. There will we rehearse, for 
if we meet in the city, we shall be dogg'd with company, and our 
devices known. In the mean time I will draw a bill of proper- 
ties, such as our play wants. I pray you, fail me not. 

Bottom. We will meet ; and there we may rehearse most ob- 
scenely^ and courageously. Take pains; be perfect: adieu. 

Quince. At the duke's oak we meet. 

Bottom. Enough ; hold or cut bowstrings.* \Exeunt. 

1 ** Moderate " is what Bottom means. 2 Handsome. 

3 Privately ; *' obscurely " may have been the word Bottom was struggling 
with. 

* " Hold or cut bowstrings," a slang phrase of the day, meaning, ** Be 
there without fail." 



28 



SHAKESPEARE. 



[act ii. 



ACT II. 

Scene I. A Wood 7iear Athens. 

Enter, from opposite sides, a Fairy attd PuCK. 

Puck. How now, spirit! whither wander you? 
Fairy. Over hill, over dale, 

Thorough 1 bush, thorough brier, 
Over park, over pale, 

Thorough flood, thorough fire, 
I do wander everywhere. 
Swifter than the moon's sphere ; 
And I serve the fairy queen. 
To dew her orbs^ upon the green. 
The cowslips tall her pensioners^ be; 
In their gold coats spots you see ; 
Those be rubies, fairy favors, 
In those freckles live their savors : 
I miist go seek some dewdrops here 
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear. 
Farewell, thou lob* of spirits; I'll be gone: 
Our queen and all her elves come here anon. 

Piick. The king doth keep his revels here to-night : 
Take heed the queen come not within his sight; 
For Oberon is passing fell and wrath, ^ 
Because that she as her attendant hath 



1 Through. 

2 Circles of a richer green than that of the surrounding grass, which are 
often seen in meadows. It was the popular belief that they were caused by 
the nightly tripping fairies. 

3 Queen Elizabeth had a bodyguard of tall, handsome, and gayly uni- 
formed courtiers who were known as " pensioners." 

4 The Fairy calls Puck the " lob [lubber] of spirits, '"as the mischievous 
sprite is of less ethereal nature than the other fairies whom he serves. 

5 " Fell and wrath," i.e., fierce and wroth. 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 29 

A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king ; 

She never had so sweet a changehng ; ^ 

And jealous Oberon would have the child 

Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild ; 

But she perforce withholds the loved boy, 

Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy: 

And now they never meet in grove or green. 

By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen. 

But they do square,^ that all their elves for fear 

Creep into acorn cups and hide them there. 

Fairy. Either I mistake your shape and making quite, 
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite 
Call'd Robin Goodfellow : are not you he 
That frights the maidens of the villagery ; 
Skim milk, and sometimes labor in the quern,^ 
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn; 
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm ;^ 
Mislead night wanderers, laughing at their harm? 
Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck, 
You do their work, and they shall have good luck: 
Are not you he? 

Puck. Thou speak'st aright ; 

I am that merry wanderer of the night. . 
I jest to Oberon, and make him smile 
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile. 
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal : 
And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl, 
In very likeness of a roasted crab,^ 
And when she drinks, against her lips I bob, 

1 Child stealing or changing was a vicious propensity of the fairies ; the 
handsome babe being taken from the cradle and carried off, and an ill-favored, 
deformed child left in its place. The latter was usually called " a change- 
ling." Here the boy taken by the fairies is so called. 

2 Quarrel. 3 A handmill for grinding corn. 
* Froth ; foam. 5 Crab apple. 



30 SHAKESPEARE. [act ii. 

And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale. 
The wisest aunt,i telling the saddest tale, 
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me ; 
Then slip I from her back, down topples she, 
And " tailor " cries, and falls into a cough ; 
And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh, 
And waxen in their mirth, and neeze,^ and swear 
A merrier hour was never wasted there. 
But room, fairy! here comes Oberon. 

Fairy. And here my mistress. Would that he were gone ! 

Enter^from one side ^ Oberon, with his train ; from the other, Titania, 

with hers. 

Oberofi. Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. 

Titania. What, jealous Oberon! — Fairies, skip hence: 
I have forsworn his bed and company. 

Oberon. Tarry, rash wanton : am not I thy lord? 

Titafiia. Then I must be thy lady : but I know 
When thou hast stolen away from fairyland, 
And in the shape of Corin^ sat all day, 
Playing on pipes of corn,* and versing love 
To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here, 
Come from the farthest steep® of India? 
But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, 
Your buskin'd^ mistress and your warrior love, 
To Theseus must be wedded, and you come 
To give their house joy and prosperity. 

1 Aged people were familiarly called "uncle" or "aunt" by their neigh- 
bors in England. 2 Sneeze. 

3 Corin and Phillida are names given to shepherds and shepherdesses in 
classic pastoral poetry. 

* "Pipes of corn," musical pipes of oat or wheat straws bound together. 

5 The reading "steppe" occurs in quarto I, but is an obvious error, as tha^ 
word was not known in Shakespeare's time. 

6 Buskins are a sort of leggings to protect the ankles from thorns, etc. 



SCENE L] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM, 31 

Oberon. How canst thou thus for shame, Titania, 
Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, 
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus? 
Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night 
From Perigenia, whom he ravished? 
And make him with fair ^^gle break his faith, 
With Ariadne ^ and Antiopa ? ^ 

Titania. These are the forgeries of jealousy: 
And never, since the middle summer's spring, 
Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead, 
By paved fountain or by rushy brook, 
Or in the beached margent of the sea, 
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind, 
But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport. 
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain, 
As in revenge, have suck*d up from the sea 
Contagious fogs ; which falling in the land 
Have every pelting ^ river made so proud 
That they have overborne their continents:* 
The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain, 
The plowman lost his sweat, and the green com 
Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard ; 
The fold stands empty in the drowned field, 
And crows are fatted with the murrain ^ flock ; 

1 The daughter of Minos, king of Crete, who, it is fabled, kept confined 
in an intricate labyrinth the Minotaur, a hideous monster which was sup- 
posed to devour the youths and maidens yearly exacted by the tyrannical king 
as tribute from the Athenians. Theseus, of whom Ariadne was enamored, 
having been furnished by her with a clew by which to extricate himself from 
its windings, entered the labyrinth, slew the monster, and escaping, sailed 

I for Athens, taking Ariadne as his bride. He ungratefully abandoned her, 
! however, for the nymph ^gle at Naxos, where the vessel had temporarily 
stopped. (See Guerber.) 

2 See Note i, page 15. 3 Petty. 

4 Banks. 

5 An infectious disease to which cattle are liable. 



32 SHAKESPEARE. [act ii. 



f 



The nine men's morris ^ is fill'd up with mud, 

And the quaint mazes ^ in the wanton green, 

For lack of tread are undistinguishable : 

The human mortals want their winter here ; 

No night is now with hymn or carol blest : 

Therefore the moon, the governess of floods, 

Pale in her anger, washes all the air, 

That rheu'matic diseases do abound : 

And thorough this distemperature we see 

The seasons alter : hoary-headed frosts 

Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose. 

And on old Hiems'^ thin and icy crown 

An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds 

Is, as in mockery, set : the spring, the summer, 

The childing* autumn, angry winter, change 

Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world, 

By their increase,^ now knows not which is which : 

And this same progeny of evils comes 

From our debate, from our dissension ; 

We are their parents and original. 

Oberon. Do you amend it then ; it lies in you. 
Why should Titania cross her Oberon? 
I do but beg a little changeling boy, 
To be my henchman.^ 

Titania. Set your heart at rest : 

The fairyland buys not the child of me. 
His mother was a votaress of my order : 
And, in the spiced Indian air, by night. 
Full often hath she gossip'd by my side, 

1 ** Nine men's morris," i.e., a game played with nine men, or pieces, to 
each, player. It was played out of doors, on a square of turf where lines were 
marked and holes cut, which in rainy weather would become filled with mud. 

2 This alludes to a game played by boys that was known as " running the 
figure of eight. " 

3 Winter. 4 Fruitful. 5 Product. ^ Page. 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 33 

And sat with me on Neptune's^ yellow sands, 
Marking the embarked traders on the flood,^ 
Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait 
Would imitate, and sail upon the land. 
To fetch me trifles, and return again, 
As from a voyage, rich with merchandise. 
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die ; 
And for her sake do I rear up her boy. 
And for her sake I will not part with him. 

Oberon. How long within this wood intend you stay? 

Titania. Perchance till after Theseus' wedding day. 
If you will patiently dance in our round 
And see our moonlight revels, go with us ; 
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts. 

Oberon. Give me that boy, and I will go with thee. 

Titaftia. Not for thy fairy kingdom. — Fairies, away! 
We shall chide downright, if I longer stay. 

\^Exif Titania with her train. 

Oberon. Well, go thy way : thou shalt not from this grove 
Till I torment thee for this injury. — 
My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememberest 
Since once I sat upon a promontory. 
And heard a mermaid^ on a dolphin's back 
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath 
That "the rude sea grew civil at her song, 
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres, 
To hear the sea-maid's music. 

Puck. I remember. 

1 Neptune was the mythical god of the ocean and of all waters. 

2 "Embarked traders on the flood," i.e., trading or merchant vessels 
under sail. 

3 Here used for " siren." The sirens were fabulous nymphs of the 
sea who were wont to sit on rocky ledges, or swim in the waves around 
them, " and sing entrancing songs which allured mariners till they turned 
aside from their course, and their vessels were dashed to pieces on the 
rocks." 




34 SHAKESPEARE. [act ii. 

Oberon. That very time I saw, but thou couldst not, 
Flying between the cold moon and the earth, 
Cupid all arm'd : a certain aim he took 
At a fair vestal ^ throned by the west,* 
And loos'd his love shaft smartly from his bow, 
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts ; 
But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft 
Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon, 
And the imperial votaress passed on, 
In maiden meditation, fancy-free.^ 
Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell : 
It fell upon a little western flower, 
Before milk white, now purple with love's wound. 
And maidens call it love-in-idleness.^ 
Fetch me that flower ; the herb I show'd thee once : 
The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid 
Will make or man or woman madly dote 
Upon the next live creature that it sees. 
Fetch me this herb ; and be thou here again 
Ere the leviathan* can swim a league. 

Ihick. I'll put a gircjle round about the earth 
In forty minutes. [Exit. 

Oberon. Having once this juice, 

I'll watch Titania when she is asleep. 
And drop the liquor of it in her eyes. 
The next thing then she waking looks upon. 
Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull. 
On meddling monkey, or on busy ^ ape. 
She shall pursue it with the soul of love : 
And ere I take this charm from off her sight. 
As I can take it with another herb, 
I'll make her render up her page to me. — 

* The allusion here is a graceful compliment to Elizabeth, the maiden 
queen of England, in whose reign the play was written. 

2 Heart-whole. 3 Pansy. * Whale. 5 Busybody. 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, 35 

But who comes here? I am invisible; 
And I will overhear their conference. 



Enter Demetrius, Helena following him. 

Demetrius. I love thee not, therefore pursue me not. 
Where is Lysander and fair Hermia? 
The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me. 
Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood ; 
And here am I, and wode^ within this wood, 
Because I cannot meet my Hermia. 
Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more. 

Helena. You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant ;2 
But yet you draw not iron, for my heart 
Is true as steel : leave you your power to draw, 
And I shall have no power to follow you. 

Demetrius. Do I entice you ? do I speak you fair ? 
Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth 
Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you? 

Helena. And even for that do I love you the more. 
I am youjT spaniel ; and, Demetrius, 
The more you beat me, I will fawn on you : 
Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me, 
Neglect me, lose me ; only give me leave, 
Unworthy as I am, to follow you. 
What worser place can I beg in your love, — 
And yet a place of high respect with me, — 
Than to be used as you use your dog? 

Demetrius. Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit, 
For I am sick when I do look on thee. 

Helena. And I am sick when I look not on you. 

Demetrius. You do impeach^ your modesty too much, 
To leave the city and commit yourself 
Into the hands of one that loves you not ; 

1 Mad ; frantic. 2 Lodestone ; magnet. ^ Bring in question. 



3p SHAKESPEARE, [act ii. 

To trust the opportunit)^ of night 
And the ill counsel of a desert place 
With the rich worth of your virginity. 

Helena. Your virtue is my privilege for that. 
It is not night when I do see your face, 
Therefore I think I am not in the night ; 
Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company, 
For you in my respect are all the world : 
Then how can it be said I am alone. 
When all the world is here to look on me? 

Demetrius. I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,^ 
And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts. 

Helena. The wildest hath not such a heart as you. 
Run when you will, the story shall be chang'd : 
Apollo 2 flies, and Daphne holds the chase ; 
The dove pursues the griffin;^ the mild hind 
Makes speed to catch the tiger ; bootless speed. 
When cowardice pursues and valor flies. 

Demetrius. I will not stay thy questions ; * let me go : 
Or, if thou follow me, do not believe 
But I shall do thee mischief in the wood. 

Helena. Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field, 
You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius! 

1 Thickets. 

2 The myth is, that Apollo met in a wood a beautiful nymph, Daphne, 
the daughter of the river god Peneus. " Love at first sight was the imme- 
diate consequence on Apollo's part, and he longed to speak to the maid and 
win her affections." But Daphne fled his approach, and he pursuing, the 
affrighted maiden invoked her father's protection, who heard her prayer and 
changed her to a laurel tree just as she was reached by her pursuer. The 
disappointed lover declared that from thenceforth the laurel would be his 
favorite tree ; and as Apollo was the god of poetry, music, and all fine arts, 
prizes awarded to poets, musicians, etc. , consist of a wreath of laurel leaves. 
(See Guerber.) 

3 A fabulous animal, half lion and half eagle. 
* Upbraiding speeches. 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM, 37 

Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex : 
We cannot fight for love, as men may do ; 
We should be woo'd, and were not made to woo. 

\^Exit Demetrius. 
I'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell, 
To die upon the hand I love so well. \Exit. 

Oberon. Fare thee well, nymph : ere he do leave this grove, 
Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love. 

Reenter Puck. 

Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer. 

Puck. Ay, there it is. 

Oberofi. I pray thee, give it me. 

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, 
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, ) 

Quite over-canopied with lush^ woodbine, 
With sweet musk roses and with eglantine \^ 
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, 
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight; 
And there the snake throws ^ her enamel'd skin, 
Weed* wide enough to wrap a fairy in: 
And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes, 
And make her full of hateful fantasies. 
Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove: 
A sweet Athenian lady is in love 

With a disdainful youth : anoint his eyes ; \ 

IBut do it when the next thing he espies \ 

\ May be the lady. Thou shalt know the man 
I By the Athenian garments he hath on. ^ 

1 Effect it with spme care that he may prove 

' Luxuriant. 

2 Sweetbrier. 

3 Sheds. 

4 Garment or covering. The word survives in "widow's weeds," the 
headdress worn by widows. 



^8 SHAKESPEARE. [act ii. 

More fond on her than she upon her love : 
And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow. 

FUck. Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so. \Exeunt. 

Scene II. Another Part of the Wood, 
Enter Titania, with her train. 

Titania. Come, now a roundeU and a fairy song; 
Then, for the third part of a minute, hence ; 
Some to kill cankers in the musk rose buds, 
Some war with reremice^ for their leathern wings. 
To make my small elves coats, and some keep back 
The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders 
At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep ; 
Then to your offices and let me rest. 

Fairies' Song. 

I. 
ist Pairy. You spotted snakes with double tongue y 
Thorny hedgehogs ^ be not seen; 
Newts^ and blindworms, do no wrongs 
Come not near our fairy queen. 

CHORUS. 

Philomel f^ with melody 
Sing in our sweet lullaby j 
Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby: 

Never harm^ 

Nor spell nor charm, 
Come our lovely lady nigh; 
SOy good-night, with lullaby. 

"l Hand-in-hand dance. 2 Bats. 3 Lizards. 

* Philomel, the nightingale, from Philomela, daughter of King Pandion 
of Athens, of whom the myth is that she was changed to a nightingale. 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 39 

II. 

2d Fairy. Weaving spiders, come not here; 

Hence, you long- legged spinners y hence! 
Beetles black, approach not near: 
Worm nor snail, do no offense. 
Philomel, with melody, etc. 

\st Fairy. Hence, away! now all is well: 
One aloof stand sentinel. 

[Exeunt Fairies. Titania sleeps. 

Enter Oberon, and squeezes the flower on Titania' s eyelids, 

Oberon. What thou seest when thou dost wake, 
Do it for thy truelove take ; 
Love and languish for his sake : 
Be it ounce, or cat, or bear, 
Pard,^ or boar with bristled hair. 
In thy eye that shall appear 
When thou wak'st, it is thy dear : 
Wake when some vile thing is near. \Exit. 

Enter Lysander and Hermia. 

Lysander. Fair love, you faint with wand'ring in the wood ; 
And to speak troth, I have forgot our way : 
We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good. 
And tarry for the comfort of the day. 

Hermia. Be it so, Lysander : find you out a bed ; 
For I upon this bank will rest my head. 

Lysander. One turf shall serve as pillow for us both ; 
One heart, one bed, two bosoms, and one troth. 

Hermia. Nay, good Lysander ; for my sake, my dear, 
Lie further off yet ; do not lie so near. 

Lysander. O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence! 

1 Leopard. 



40 SHAKESPEARE. [act ii. 

Love takes the meaning in love's conference. 
I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit 
So that but one heart we can make of it ; 
Two bosoms interchained with an oath ; 
So then two bosoms and a single troth. 
Then by your side no bed room me deny ; 
For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie. 

Hermia. Lysander riddles very prettily : 
Now much beshrew^ my manners and my pride, 
If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied. 
But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy 
Lie further off ; in human modesty. 
Such separation as may well be said 
Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid. 
So far be distant ; and, good-night, sweet friend : 
Thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end ! 

Lysafider. Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I ; 
And then end life when I end loyalty! 
Here is my bed : sleep give thee all his rest ! 

Hermia. With half that wish the wisher's eyes be press'd ! 

\^They sleep. 

Enter PucK. 

Puck, Through the forest have I gone. 

But Athenian found I none. 
On whose eyes I might approve 
This flower's force in stirring love. 
Night and silence. — Who is here? 
Weeds of Athens he doth wear : 
This is he, my master said, 
Despised the Athenian maid ; 
And here the maiden, sleeping sound, 
On the dank and dirty ground. 
Pretty soul! she durst not lie 

1 A gentle term of reproach or reproof. 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 41 

Near this lack-love, this kill- courtesy. 

Churl, upon thy eyes I throw 

All the power this charm doth owe.^ 

When thou wak'st, let love forbid 

Sleep his seat on thy eyelid. 

So awake when I am gone ; 

For I must now to Oberon. \jExit. 

Enter Demetrius and Helena running. 

Helena. Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius. 

Deinetrius. I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus. 

Helena. O, wilt thou darkling 2 leave me? do not so. 

Demetrius. Stay, on thy peril : I alone will go. \Exit. 

Helena. O, I am out of breath in this fond chase! 
The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace. 
Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies ; 
For she hath blessed and attractive eyes. 
How came her eyes so bright ? Not with salt tears : 
If so, my eyes are oftener wash'd than hers. 
No, no, I am as ugly as a bear ; 
For beasts that meet me run away for fear : 
Therefore no marvel though Demetrius 
Do, as a monster, fly my presence thus.^ 
What wicked and dissembling glass of mine 
Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne?* — 
But who is here ? Lysander! on the ground! 
Dead ? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound. — 
Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake. 

Lysajider. \Awaki7ig\ And run through fire I will for thy sweet 
sake. 
Transparent Helena! Nature shows her art. 
That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart. 

1 Own. 2 In the dark. 

3 " Do as a," etc., i.e., do fly my presence as that of a monsten 

4 ** Sphery eyne," i.e., starry eyes. 



42 SHAKESPEARE. [act ii. 

Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word 
Is that vile name to perish on my sword! 

Helena. Do not say so, Lysander ; say not so. 
'What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though? i 
Yet Hermia still loves you : then be content. 

Lysa7ider. Content with Hermia! No; I do repent 
The tedious minutes I with her have spent. 
Not Hermia but Helena I love : 
Who will not change a raven for a dove? 
The will of man is by his reason sway'd ; 
And reason says you are the worthier maid. 
Things growing are not ripe until their season r 
So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason; 
And touching now the point of human skill. 
Reason becomes ^e marshal to my will,^ 
And leads me to your eyes, where I o'erlook 
Love's stories written in love's richest book. 
' Helena. Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born? 
When at your hands did I deserve this scorn? 
Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man, 
That I did never, no, nor never can, 
Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye, 
But you must flout ^ my insufficiency? 
Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do, 
In such disdainful manner me to woo. 
But fare you well : perforce I must confess 
I thought you lord of more true gentleness. 
O, that a lady, of one man refus'd. 
Should of another therefore be abus'd! \Exit 

Lysander. She sees not Hermia. — Hermia, sleep thou there ; 
And never mayst thou come Lysander near! 

1 " What though," i.e., what matters it? ' 

2 " And touching now," etc., i.e., and having now come to maturity, my 
will is guided by reason. 

3 Jeer at 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, 43 

For as a surfeit of the sweetest things 
The deepest loathing to the stomach brings, 
Or as the heresies that men do leave 
Are hated most of those they did deceive, 
So thou, my surfeit and my heresy, 
Of all be hated, but the most of me! 
And, all my powers, address your love and might 
To honor Helen and to be her knight! \Exit. 

Hermia. [Awaking] Help me, Lysander, help me! do thy best 
To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast ! 
Ay me, for pity ! what a dream was here ! 
Lysander, look how I do quake with fear. 
Methought a serpent eat my heart away, 
And you sat smiling at his cruel prey. 
Lysander! what, remov'd? Lysander! lord! n^ 
What, out of hearing? gone? no sound, no word? 
Alack, where are you? speak, an if you hear ; 
Speak, of all loves ! ^ I swoon almost with fear. 
No?. then I well perceive you are not nigh: 
Either death or you I'll find immediately. [Exit. 

ACT HI. 

Scene I. The Wood. Titania lying asleep. 

Enter Quince, Snug, Bottom, Flute, Snout, and Starveling. 

Bottom. Are we all met? 

Quince. Pat, pat; 2 and here's a marvelous convenient place 
for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our stage, this haw- 
thorn brake our tiring-house;^ and we will do it in action as we 
will do it before the duke. 

Bottom. Peter Quince, — 

Quince. What sayest thou, bully Bottom? 

1 " Of all loves," i.e., for love's sake. 2 To the minute; promptly. 

3 Dressing room. 



44 SHAKESPEARE. [act hi. 

Botto7n. There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and 
Thisby that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw a sword 
to kill himself, which the ladies cannot abide. How answer you 
that? 

Snout. By'r lakin,^ a parlous ^ fear. 

Starveling. I believe we must leave the killing out, when all 
is done. 

Bottom. Not a whit : I have a device to make all well. Write 
me a prologue ; and let the prologue seem to say, we will do no 
harm with our swords and that Pyramus is not killed indeed;^ 
and, for the more better assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, 
am not Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver : this will put them out 
of fear. 

Quince. Well, we will have such a prologue ; and it shall be 
written in eight and six.^ 

Bottojn. No, make it two more ; let it be written in eight and 
eight. 

Snout. Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion? 

Starveling. I fear it, I promise you. ' 

Botto?n. Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves : to 
bring in — God shield us! — a lion among ladies, is a most dread- 
ful thing ; for there is not a more fearful wild fowl than your lion 
living ; and we ought to look to 't. 

Snout. Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a lion. 

Bottom. Nay, you must name his name, and half his face 
must be seen through the lion's neck : and he himself must sp^ak 
through, saying thus, or to the same defect,^ — "Ladies," — or 
''Fair ladies, I would wish you," — or *'I would request you," 
— or "I would entreat you, not to fear, not to tremble: my 
life for yours. ^ If you think I come hither as a lion, it were 

1 This petty oatli is a diminutive of " By our Lady," i.e., the Holy Virgin. 

2 Perilous. ^ Really ; actually. 

* " Eight and six," i.e., in verses alternately of eight and six syllables; 
the ordinary ballad measure. 

S Eifect. 6 " My life for yours," i.e., I pledge my life for yours. 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 45 

pity of my life : no, I am no such thing ; I am a man as other 
men are ; " and there indeed let him name his name, and tell 
them plainly he is Snug the joiner. 

Quince. Well, it shall be so. But there is two hard things ; 
that is, to bring the moonHght into a chamber ; for, you know, 
Pyramus and Thisby meet by moonhght. 

Snout. Doth the moon shine that night we play our play? 

Bottom. A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanac; find 
out moonshine, find out moonshine. 

Quince. Yes, it doth shine that night. 

Bottom. Why, then may you leave a casement of the great 
chamber window, where we play, open, and the moon may shine 
in at the casement. 

Quince. Ay ; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns 
and a lanthorn,i and say he comes to disfigure, or to present, the 
person of Moonshine. Then, there is another thing : we must 
have a wall in the great chamber ; for Pyramus and Thisby, says 
the story, did talk through the chink of a wall. 

Snout. You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom? 

Bottom. Some man or other must present Wall : and let him 
have some plaster, or some loam, or some roughcast about him, 
to signify wall ; and let him hold his fingers thus, and through 
that cranny shall Pyramus and Thisby whisper. 

Quince. If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit down, 
every mother's son, and rehearse your parts. Pyramus, you be- 
gin. When you have spoken your speech, enter into that brake : 
and so every one according to his cue.^ 

Enter PucK behind. 

Puck. What hempen homespuns^ have we swaggering here, 
So near the cradle of the fairy queen? 

1 Lantern. 

2 The last words of a speech, w'^hich give the next speaker a hint when to 
begin. Actors study their cues as well as the lines they are to speak. 

3 Rustic fellows. 



46 SHAKESPEARE. [act hi. 

What, a play toward! ^ I'll be an auditor; 
An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause. 

Quince. Speak, Pyramus. — Thisby, stand forth. 

Bottom. "Thisby, the flowers of odious savors sweet," — 

Quince. Odors, odors. 

Bottom. " odors savors sweet : 

So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear. 
But hark, a voice ! stay thou but here a while, 

And by and by I will to thee appear." \Exit. 

Puck. A stranger Pyramus than e'er play'd here! \Exit. 

Flute. Must I speak now.? 

Quince. Ay, marry, must you ; for you must understand he 
goes but to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again. 

Flute. " Most radiant Pyramus, most lily white of hue, 

Of color like the red rose on triumphant brier, 
Most brisky juvenal,^ and eke most lovely Jew, 

As true as truest horse, that yet would never tire, 
I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb." 

Quince. " Ninus' tomb," man : why, you must not. speak that 
yet ; that you answer to Pyramus : you. speak all your part at 
once, cues and all. — Pyramus, enter: your cue is past; it is, 
"never tire." 

Flute. O, — "As true as truest horse, that yet would never 
tire." 

Reenter PucK, and Bottom with an. ass's head. 

Bottom. " If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine." 

Quince. O monstrous! O strange! we are haunted. Pray, 

masters! fly, masters! Help! 

\Exeunt Quince, Snug, Flute, Snout, and Starveling. 
Puck. I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round. 
Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier : 

Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound, 

1 About to begin. 

2 Youth. An affected phrase of the time, which Shakespeare ridicules. 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 47 

A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire ; 
And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn, 
Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn. \Exit. 

Bottoin. Why do they run away? this is a knavery of them to 
make me afeard. 

Reenter Snout. 

Snoict. O Bottom, thou art chang'd! what do I see on thee? 
Bottom. What do you see? you see an ass head of your own, 
do you? \Exit Snout. 

Reenter QuiNCE. 

Quince. Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art translated.^ 

\Exit: 

Bottom. I see their knavery : this is to make an ass of me ; to 
fright me, if they could. But I will not stir from this place, do 
what they can. I will walk up and down here, and I will sing, 
that they shall hear I am not afraid, \Sings. 

The ousel cock ^ so black of hue, 

With orange-tawny bill, 
The throstle^ with his note so true. 

The wren with little quill, — 



Titania. 
bed? 
Bottom. 



[Awaking] What angel wakes me from my flowery 

[Sings] 

The finch, the sparrow, and the lark, 

The plain-sojig cuckoo gray. 
Whose 7iote full many a m,an doth mafk, 

And dares not answer nay; — 

for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish a bird? who would 
give a bird the lie, though he cry '' cuckoo " never so ? 

Titania. I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again : 
Mine ear is much enamor'd of thy note ; 



^ Transformed. 
3 Song thrush. 



2 The ousel cock is the male blackbird. 



48 SHAKESPEARE. [act hi. 

So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape ; 

And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me 

On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee. 

Bottom. Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for 
that : and yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little com- 
pany together nowadays ; the more the pity that some honest 
neighbors will not make them friends. Nay, I can gleek^ upon 
occasion. 

Titania. Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful. 

Bottom. Not so, neither ; but if I had wit enough to get out 
of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn. 

Titania. Out of this wood do not desire to go : 
Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no. 
I am a spirit of no common rate : 
The summer still doth tend upon my state ; 
And I do love thee : therefore, go with me ; 
I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee, 
And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep, 
And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep : 
And I will purge thy mortal grossness so 
That thou shalt like an airy spirit go. — 
Peaseblossom ! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustardseed! 

Enter Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustardseed. 

Peaseblossom. Ready. 

Cobweb. And I. 

Moth. And I. 

Mustardseed. And I. 

All. Where shall we go? 

Titania. Be kind and courteous to this gentleman ; 
Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes ; 
Feed him with apricocks and dewberries. 
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries ; 

1 Jest satirically ; jeer. 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM 49 

The honey-bags steal from the humblebees, 
And for night tapers crop their waxen thighs 
And Hght them at the fiery glowworm's eyes, 
To have my love to bed and to arise \^ 
And pluck the wings from painted butterflies 
To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes. 
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies. 

Peaseblossom. Hail, mortal! 

Cobweb. Hail! 

Moth. Hail! 

Mustardseed. Hail! 

Bottom. I cry your worship's mercy,^ heartily : I beseech your 
worship's name. 

Cobweb. Cobweb. 

Bottom. I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master 
Cobweb : if I cut my finger,^ I shall make bold with you. — Your 
name, honest gentleman ? 

Peaseblossom. Peaseblossom. 

Bottom. I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash,^ your 
mother, and to Master Peascod, your father. Good Master 
Peaseblossom, I shall desire you of more acquaintance too. — 
Your name, I beseech 5^ou, sir? 

Mustardseed. Mustardseed. 

Bottom. Good Master Mustardseed, I know your patience 
well : that same cowardly, giant-like ox-beef hath devoured many 
a gentleman of your house : I promise you your kindred hath 
made my eyes water ere now. I desire your more acquaintance, 
good Master Mustardseed. 

Titania. Come, wait upon him ; lead him to my bower. 

1 " To have my love," etc., i.e., to escort him to bed and wait on him 
when he gets up. 

2 " I cry your," etc., i.e., I beg your worship's pardon. 

3 Cobweb was sometimes used to stop the bleeding of slight wounds. 

* A term applied to vegetables usually eaten before fully ripe, but as yet 
too immature for use. 




50 SHAKESPEARE. [act hi. 

The moon, methinks, looks with a watery eye ; 
And when she weeps, weeps every Httle flower, 
Lamenting some enforced chastity. 
Tie up my love's tongue, bring him silently. [Exeunt. 

Scene II. Another Pa7't of the Wood. 
Enter Oberon. 

Oberon. I wonder if Titania be awak'd ; 
Then, what it was that next came in her eye. 
Which she must dote on in extremity.^ 

Enter PucK. 

Here comes my messenger. 

How now, mad spirit! 
What night rule^ now about this haunted grove? 

Puck. My mistress with a monster is in love. 
Near to her close and consecrated bower, 
While she was in her dull and sleeping hour, 
A crew of patches,^ rude mechanicals,* 
That work for bread upon Athenian stalls. 
Were met together to rehearse a play 
Intended for great Theseus' nuptial day. 
The shallowest thickskin of that barren sort,^ 
Who Pyramus presented, in their sport 
Forsook his scene and enter'd in a brake : 
When I did him at this advantage take, 
An ass's nole^ I fixed on his head: 
Anon his Thisbe must be answered, 
And forth my mimic '^ comes. When they him spy. 
As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye, 

1 " In extremity," i.e., excessively. 

2 Work or conduct customary in the night. ^ Dullards. 
* Mechanics. 5 " Barren sort," i.e., stupid set. 
6 A grotesque name for head. '^ Player. 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, 5 1 

Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort, ^ 

Rising and cawing at the gun's report, ! 

Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky, 

So, at his sight, away his fellows fly ; 

And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls ; 

He murder cries and help from Athens calls. 

Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears thus strong. 

Made senseless things begin to do them wrong ; 

For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch ; 

Some, sleeves ; some, hats ; from yielders all things catch. 

I led them on in this distracted fear, 

And left sweet P)Tamus translated there : 

When in that moment, so it came to pass, 

Titania wak'd, and straightway lov'd an ass. 

Oberon. This falls out better than I could devise. 
But hast thou yet latch'd ^ the Athenian's eyes 
With the love juice, as I did bid thee do? 

Puck. I took him sleeping, — that is finish' d too,- 
And the Athenian woman by his side ; 
That, when he wak'd, of force she must be ey'd.^ 

Enter Hermia and Demetrius. 

Oberon. Stand close : this is the same Athenian. 

Puck. This is the woman, but not this the man. 

Demetrius. O, why rebuke you him that loves you so? 
Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe. 

Hermia. Now I but chide ; but I should use thee worse, 
For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse. 
If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep. 
Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep, 
And kill me too. 
The sun was not so true unto the day 

1 " Russet-pated choughs," etc., i.e., a flock of gray-headed jackdaws. 

2 Smeared. 3 Seen. 



52 SHAKESPEARE. [act hi. 

As he to me : would he have stolen away 
From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as soon 
This whole earth may be bor'd, and that the moon 
May through the center creep, and so displease 
Her brother's noontide with the Antipodes.^ 
It cannot be but thou hast murder'd him ; 
So should a murd'rer look, so dead, so grim. 

Demetrius. So should the murder'd look, and so should I, 
Pierc'd through the heart with your stem cruelty : 
Yet you, the murd'rer, look as bright, as clear, 
As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere. 

Hermia. What's this to my Lysander ? where is he ? 
Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me ? i 

Demetrius. I had rather give his carcass to my hounds. 

Hermia. Out, dog! out, cur! thou driv'st me past the bounds 
Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him, then ? 
Henceforth be never number'd among men! 
O, once tell true, tell true, even for my sake! 
Durst thou have look'd upon him being awake, 
And hast thou kill'd him sleeping? O brave touch! 2 
Could not a worm, an adder, do so much ? 
An adder did it ; for with doubler tongue 
Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung. 

Demetrius. You spend your passion on a mispris'd mood:^ 
I am not guilty of Lysander's blood ; 
Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell. 

Hermia. I pray thee, tell me then that he is well. 

Demetrius. An if I could, what should I get therefore? 

Hermia. A privilege never to see me more. 
And from thy hated presence part J so : 
See me no more, whether he be dead or no. \Exit. 

Demetrius. There is no following her in this fierce vein:^ 
Here, therefore, for a while I will remain. 

1 Those who live on the opposite side of the earth. 2 Deed. 

2 ** On a mispris'd mood," i.e., on a mistaken caprice. * Humor. 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 53 

So sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow 
For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe ; 
Which now in some slight measure it will pay, 
If for his tender here I make some stay. [Lies down and sleeps. 
jto Oberon. What hast thou done? thou hast mistaken quite 
And laid the love juice on some truelove's sight : 
Of thy misprision must perforce ensue 
Some true love turn'd and not a false turn'd true.^ 

Puck. Then fate o'errules, that, one man holding troth, 
A million fail, confounding 2 oath on oath. 

Oberon. About the wood go swifter than the wind. 
And Helena of Athens look thou find : 
All fancy-sick ^ she is and pale of cheer,* 
With sighs of love, that cost the fresh blood dear. 
By some illusion see thou bring her here : 
I'll charm his eyes against she do appear. 

Puck. I go, I go ; look how I go. 
Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow. \Exit. 

Oberon. Flower of this purple dye, 

Hit with Cupid's archery, 

Sink in apple of his eye. 

When his love he doth espy, 

Let her shine as gloriously 

^s the Venus of the sky. 

When thou wak'st, if she be by, 

Beg of her for remedy. 

Reenter PuCK. 

Puck. Captain of our fairy band, 

Helena is here at hand ; 
And the youth, mistook by me, 

1 ** Of thy misprision," etc., i.e., the result of your mistake will neces- 
sarily be some true lover turned inconstant, and not a false lover turned true. 
Misprision means " neglect" or " mistake." 

2 Breaking. ^ Love-sick. ^ Face. 



54 SHAKESPEARE. [act in. 

Pleading for a lover's fee. 

Shall we their fond pageant ^ see? 

Lord, what fools these mortals be! 
Oberon. Stand aside : the noise they make 

Will cause Demetrius to awake. 
Puck, Then will two at once woo one ; ' 

That must needs be sport alone ;2 

And those things do best please me 

That befall preposterously. 

Enter Lysander and Helena. 

Lysander. Why should you think that I should woo in 
scorn ? 

Scorn and derision never come in tears : 
Look, when I vow, I weep ; and vows so born, 

In their nativity all truth appears. 
How can these things in me seem scorn to you, 
Bearing the badge of faith to prove them true ? 

Helena. You do advance^ your cunning more and more. 

When truth kills truth, O devilish-holy fray! 
These vows are Hermia's : will you give her o'er? 

Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh : 
Your vows to her and me, put in two scales, 
Will even weigh, and both as hght as tales.* « 

Lysander. I had no judgment when to her I swore. 

Helena. Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o'er. 

Lysander. Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you. 

Demetrius. [Awaking] O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, 
divine ! 
To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne? 
Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show 
Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow! 

1 " Fond pageant," i.e., foolish display. 2 Beyond all comparison:, 

3 Exhibit. 4 Fairy tales. 



SCENE- II.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 55 

That pure congealed white, high Taurus' ^ snow, 
Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow 
When thou hold'st up thy hand. O, let me kiss 
This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss! 

Helena. O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent 
To set against me for your merriment : 
If you were civil and knew courtesy. 
You would not do me thus much injury. 
Can you not hate me, as I know you do, 
But you must join in souls to mock me too? 
If you were men, as men you are in show, 
You would not use a gentle lady so ; 
To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts, 
When I am sure you hate me with your hearts. 
You both are rivals, and love Hermia ; 
And now both rivals, to mock Helena : 
A trim exploit, a manly enterprise. 
To conjm-e tears up in a poor maid's eyes 
With your derision! none of noble sort 
Would so offend a virgin, and extort ^ 
A poor soul's patience, all to make you sport. , 



■Lysander. You are unkind, Demetrius ; be not so ; 
For you love Hermia ; this you know I know : 
And here, with all good will, with all my heart. 
In Hermia's love I yield you up my part ; 
And yours of Helena to me bequeath. 
Whom I do love and will do till my death. 

Helena. Never did mockers waste more idle breath. 

Demetrius. Lysander, keep thy Hermia ; I will none ; 
If e'er I lov'd her, all that love is gone. 
My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourn'd, 



1 The name (which itself means a high mountain) given by the ancients 
to a chain of mountains in Asia Minor. 

2 Exhaust. 



5^ SHAKESPEARE. £^ct hi. 

And now to Helen is it home return'd, 
There to remain. 

Lysander. Helen, it is not so. 

Demetrius. Disparage not the faith thou dost not know, 
Lest, to thy peril, thou aby i it dear. 
Look, where thy love comes ; yonder is thy dear. 

Reenter Hermia. 

Hermia. Dark night, that from the eye his 2 function takes, 
The ear more quick of apprehension makes ; 
Wherein it doth inipair the seeing sense, 
It pays the hearing double recompense. 
Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found ; 
Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound. 
But why unkindly didst thou leave me so? 

Lysander. Why should he stay, whom love doth press to go? 

Hermia. What love could press Lysander from my side? 

Lysander. Lysander's love, that would not let him bide ; 
Fair Helena, who more engilds the night 
Than all yon fiery oes ^ and eyes of hght. 
Why seek'st thou me? could not this make thee know. 
The hate I bear thee made me leave thee so ? 
^ Hermia. You speak not as you think : it cannot be. 

Helena. Lo, she is one of this confederacy! 
Now I perceive they have conjoin'd all three 
To fashion this false sport in spite of me.^ 
Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid! 
Have you conspir'd, have you with these contrived 
To bait 5 me with this foul derision? 
Is all the counsel that we two have shar'd. 
The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent, 

1 Atone for. 2 its. 3 Orbs ; stars. 

* " In spite of me," i.e., with malicious feeling towards me. 

5 Worry. 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 57 

When we have chid the hasty-footed time 

For parting us, — O, is it all forgot? _____ 

All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence? 

We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,^ 

Have with our needles created both one flower, 

Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion. 

Both warbling of one song, both in one key, 

As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds, 

Had been incorporate. So we grew together, 

Like to a double cherry, seeming parted. 

But yet an union in* partition, 

Two lovely berries molded on one stem ; 

So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart ; 

Two of the first, like coats in heraldry, 

Due but to one and crowned with one crest.^ 

And will you rent our ancient love asunder, 

To join with men in scorning your poor friend? 

It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly : 

Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it, 

Though I alone do feel the injury. 

Hermia. I am amazed at your passionate words. 
I scorn you not : it seems that you scorn me. 

Helena. Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn, 
To follow me and praise my eyes and face ? 
And made your other love, Demetrius, 
Who even but now did spurn me with his foot. 
To call me goddess, nymph, divine and rare, 
Precious, celestial? Wherefore speaks he this 
To her he hates? and wherefore doth Lysander 
Deny your love, so rich within his soul, 

1 ** Two artificial gods," i.e., two gods working as artificers. 

2 " Two of the first," etc, Helena explains by a simile: " We had two 
of the first — i.e., bodies — like the double coats (of arms) in heraldry that 
belong to man and wife as one person, but which, like our single heart, have 
but one crest." (Douce.) 




58 SHAKESPEARE. [act hi. 

And tender me, forsooth, affection, 
But by your setting on, by your consent? 
What though I be not so in grace as you, 
So hung upon with love, so fortunate. 
But miserable most, to love unlov'd? 
This you should pity rather than despise. 

Hermia. I understand not what you mean by this. 

Helena. Ay, do, persever,i counterfeit sad looks, 
Make mouths upon me when I turn my back ; 
Wink each at other ; hold the sweet jest up : 
This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled. 
If you have any pity, grace, or manners. 
You would not make me such an argument.^ 
But fare ye well : 'tis partly my own fault ; 
Which death or absence soon shall remedy. 

Lysa?ider. Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse: 
My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena! 

Helena. O excellent! 

Hermia. Sweet, do not scorn her so. 

Demetrius. If she cannot entreat, I can compel. 

Lysander. Thou canst compel no more than she entreat : 
Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers. — 
Helen, I love thee ; by my life, I do : 
I swear by that which I will lose for thee. 
To prove him false that says I love thee not. 

Demetrius. I say I love thee more than he can do. 

Lysander. If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too. 

Demetrius. Quick, come! 

Hermia. Lysander, whereto tends all this? 

Lysander. Away, you Ethiope! 

Demetrius. No, no, sir; 

Seem to break loose ; take on as you would follow, 
But yet come not : )^ou are a tame man,^ go ! 

1 Persevere. 2 Subject of mirth. 3 " Tame man," i.e., coward. 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 59 

Ly Sander. Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! vile thing, let loose, 
Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent! 

Mermia. Why are you grown so rude? what change is this ? 
Sweet love, — 

Ly Sander. Thy love! out, tawny Tartar, out! 

Out, loathed medicine! hated potion, hence! 

Hermia. Do you not jest? 

Helena. ' Yes, sooth ; and so do you. 

Lysander. Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee. 

Demetrius. I would I had your bond, for I perceive 
A weak bond holds you :i I'll not trust your word. 

Lysander. What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead ? 
Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so. 

He7'i7tia. What, can you do me greater harm than hate? 
Hate me! wherefore? O me! what news, my love! 
Am not I Hermia? are not you Lysander? 
I am as fair now as I was erewhile. 
Since night you lov'd me ; yet since night you left me : 
Why, then you left me — O, the gods forbid! — 
In earnest, shall I say? 

Lysander. Ay, by my life ; 

And never did desire to see thee more. 
Therefore be out of hope, of question, of doubt ; 
Be certain, nothing truer ; 'tis no jest 
That I do hate thee and love Helena. 

Hermia. O me! you juggler! you canker blossom! 
You thief of love ! what, have you come by night 
And stolen my love's heart from him? 

Hele7ia. Fine, i'faith! 

Have you no modesty, no maiden shame. 
No touch of bashfulness? What, will you tear 
Impatient answers from my gentle tongue? 
Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet, you! 

1 " A weak bond," etc. ; Demetrius refers to Hermia, who hangs on to 
Lysander to detain him. 



/ 




6o SHAKESPEARE. [act hi 

Hermia. Puppet ! why so ? ay, that way goes the game. 
Now I perceive that she hath made compare 
Between our statures ; she hath urg'd her height ; 
And with her personage, her tall personage, 
Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him. — 
And are you grown so high in his esteem, 
Because I am so dwarfish and so low? 
How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak; 
How low am I? I am not yet so low 
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes. 

Helena. I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen, 
Let her not hurt me : I was never curst ; ^ 
I have no gift at all in shrewishness ; 
I am a right maid for my cowardice : 
Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think, 
Because she is something lower than myself, 
That I can match her. 

Hermia. Lower! hark, again. 

Helena. Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me. 
I evermore did love you, Hermia, 
Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you ; 
Save that, in love unto Demetrius, 
I told him of your stealth unto this wood. 
He foUow'd you ; for love I follow'd him ; 
But he hath chid me hence and threaten'd me 
To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too : 
And now, so you will let me quiet go, 
To Athens will I bear my folly back 
And follow you no further. Let me go : 
You see how simple and how fond 2 I am. 

Hermia. Why, get you gone : who is't that hinders you? 

Helena. A foolish heart, that I leave here behind. 

Hermia. What, with Lysander ? 

Helena. With Demetrius. 

1 Spiteful. 2 Foolish. 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 6 1 

Ly Sander. Be not afraid ; she shall not harm thee, Helena. 

Demetrius. No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part. 

Helena. O, when she's angry, she is keen and shrewd! ^ 
She was a vixen when she went to school ; 
And though she be but little, she is fierce. 

Ifermia. " Little " again! nothing but " low " and " little "! 
Why will you suffer her to flout me thus? 
Let me come to her. 

Ly Sander. Get you gone, you dwarf ; 

You minimus,^ of hindering knotgrass ^ made ; 
You bead, you acorn. 

Demetrius. You are too officious 

In her behalf that scorns your services. 
Let her alone : speak not of Helena ; 
Take not her part ; for, if thou dost intend 
Never so little show of love to her, 
Thou shalt aby it. 

Ly Sander. Now she holds me not ; 

Now follow, if thou dar'st, to try whose right, 
Of thine or mine, is most in Helena. 

Demetrius. Follow! nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by jole.^ 

VExeunt Lysander and Demetrius. 

LLermia. You, mistress, all this coil is 'long of you.^ 
Nay, go not back. ' 

Helena. I will not trust you, I, 

Nor longer stay in your ciurst company. 
Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray. 
My legs are longer, though, to run away. [Exit. 

Hermia. I am amaz'd, and know not what to say. [Exit. 

1 Sharp-tongued ; shrewish. 

2 Mere atom ; smallest thing. 

3 A kind of grass that was supposed to hinder the growth of children. 

4 " Cheek by jole," i.e., close together, cheek by cheek. Jole, or jowl, 
is the jaw or cheek. 

5 "All this coil," etc., i.e., all this trouble is of your making. 



62 SHAKESPEARE. [act iiIo 

Oberom This is thy neghgence : still thou mistak'st, 
Or else committ'st thy knaveries willfully. 

Puck. Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook. 
Did not you tell me I should know the man 
By the Athenian garments he had on? 
And so far blameless proves my enterprise, 
That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes ; 
And so far am I glad it so did sort,^ 
As this their jangling I esteem a sport. 

Obero?i. Thou seest these lovers seek a place to fight : 
Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night ; 
The starry welkin ^ cover thou anon 
With drooping fog as black as Acheron,^ 
And lead these testy rivals so astray 
As one come not within another's way. 
Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue. 
Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong ; 
And sometime rail thou like Demetrius ; 
And from each other look thou lead them thus, 
Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep 
With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep : 
Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye ; 
Whose liquor hath this virtuous property. 
To take from thence all error with his ^ might. 
And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight. 
When they next wake, all this derision 
Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision ; 
And back to Athens shall the lovers wend. 
With league 5 whose date till death shall never end. 
Whiles I in this affair do thee employ, 
I'll to my queen and beg her Indian boy ; 

1 Happen. 2 gi^y. 

3 A mythical stream, whose dark, swift current marked the confines of the 
lower world. 

^ Its. 5 League of friendship. 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 63 

And then I will her charmed eye release 

From monster's view, and all things shall be peace. 

Fuck. My fairy lord, this must be done with haste, 
For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast. 
And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger,i 
At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there, 
Troop home to churchyards : damned spirits all. 
That in crossways and floods have burial,^ 
Already to their wormy beds are gone ; 
For fear lest day should look their shames upon, 
They willfully themselves exile from hght. 
And must for aye consort with black-brow'd night. 

Oheron. But we are spirits of another sort : 
I with the morning's love have oft made sport \^ 
And, like a forester, the groves may tread, 
Even till the eastern gate, all fiery, red, 
Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams, 
Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams. 
But, notwithstanding, haste ; make no delay : 
We may effect this business yet ere day. \Exit. 

Puck. Up and down, up and down, 

I will lead them up and down : 

I am fear'd in field and town : 

Goblin, lead them up and down. 
Here comes one. 

1 The morning star, the forerunner of Aurora, in Roman mythology god- 
dess of the dawn. 

2 Formerly in England the bodies of suicides were subjected to ignomin- 
ious burial in the public highway. It was the belief of the ancients that the 
shades of those who were drowned, and of those on whose bodies the rites 
of sepulture had never been regularly bestowed, were condemned to wander 
for a hundred years before they were allowed to cross the Acheron to reach 
Pluto's throne and hear his decree. 

3 " With the morning's love," i.e., with the love of the morning. 



64 SHAKESPEARE. [act hi. 

Reenter Lysander. 

Ly Sander. Where art thou, proud Demetrius? speak thou now. 
Puck. Here, villain; drawn and ready. Where art thou? 
Lysander. I will be with thee straight. 
Puck. Follow me, then, 

To plainer ground. \Exit Lysander^ as following the voice,^^^ 

Reenter Demetrius. 

Demetrius. Lysander! speak again. 

Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled? 
Speak! In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head ? 

Puck. Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars. 
Telling the bushes that thou look'st for wars, 
And wilt not come? Come, recreant ; come, thou child ; 
I'll whip thee with a rod : he is defil'd 
That draws a sword on thee. 

Demetrius. Yea, art thou there? 

Puck. Follow my voice : we'll try no manhood here. 

\Exeunt. 
Reenter Lysander. 

Lysander. He goes before me and still dares me on : 
When I come where he calls, then he is gone. 
The villain is much lighter-heel' d than I : 
I f ollow'd fast, but faster he did fly ; 
That fallen am I in dark uneven way, 

And here will rest me. \Lies down.'] Come, thou gentle day! 
For if but once thou show me thy gray light, 
I'll find Demetrius and revenge this spite.^ [Sleeps. 

Reenter PucK and Demetrius. 

Pick. Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why com'st thou not ? 
Demetrius. Abide ^ me, if thou dar'st; for well I wot^ 

1 Insult. 2 Wait for. 3 Know. 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 65 

Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place, 
And dar'st not stand, nor look me in the face. 
Where art thou now? 

Puck. Come hither : I am here. 

Demetrius. Nay, then, thou mock'st me. Thou shalt buy this 
dear, 
If ever I thy face by daylight see : 
Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me 
To measure out my length on this cold bed. 
By day's approach look to be visited. \Lies douni and sleeps. 

Reenter Helena. 

Helena. O weary night, O long and tedious night. 
Abate thy hours ! Shine comforts from the east, 
That I may back to Athens by daylight. 

From these that my poor company detest. 
And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye, 
Steal me awhile from mine own company. 

\Lies down and sleeps. 

I Puck. Yet but three? Come one more; 
Two of both kinds makes up four. 
Here she comes, curst and sad : 
Cupid is a knavish lad, 
Thus to make poor females mad. 



Reenter Hermia. 



Hermia. Never so weary, never so in woe. 
Bedabbled with the dew and torn with briers, 
I can no further crawl, no further go ; 

My legs can keep no pace with my desires. 
Here will I rest me till the break of day. 
Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray! 

\Lies dowji and sleeps. 



66 SHAKESPEARE. [act iv. 

Puck, On the ground 

Sleep sound : 
I'll apply 
To your eye, 
Gentle lover, remedy. 

^Squeezing the juice on Ly Sander's eyes. 
When thou wak'st, 
Thou tak'st 
True delight 
In the sight 
Of th}^ former lady's eye : 
And the country proverb known. 
That every man should take his own, 
In your waking shall be shown : 
Jack shall have Jill ; 
Naught shall go ill ; 
The man shall have his mare again,^ and all shall be well. 

\Exit 

\ 

\ ACT IV. 

Scene I. The Same. Lysander, Demetrius, Helena, and 

Hermia, lying asleep. 

Enter Titania and Bottom ; Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, Mustard- 
seed, and other Fairies attending ; Oberon behind, unseen. 

Titania. Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed, 
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,^ 
And stick musk roses in thy sleek smooth head, 
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy. 
Bottom. Where's Peaseblossom? 
Peaseblossom. Ready. 

1 "The man shall," etc., a proverbial expression signifying that all will 
come right in the end. 

2 Caress. 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 67 

Botto77i. Scratch my head, Peaseblossom. Where's Mounsieur 
Cobweb? 

Cobweb. Ready. 
Bfi, Bottom. Mounsieur Cobweb, good mounsieur, get you your 
weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped humblebee on 
the top of a thistle ; and, good mounsieur, bring me the honey- 
bag. Do not fret yourself too much in the action, mounsieur ; 
and, good mounsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not ; I 
would be loath to have you overflown ^ with a honey-bag, signior. 
Where's Mounsieur Mustardseed ? 
L Mustardseed. Ready. 

* Bottom. Give me your neaf,^ Mounsieur Mustardseed. Pray 
you, leave ^ your courtesy, good mounsieur. 

Mustardseed. What's your will ? 

Bottom. Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery^ 
Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber's, mounsieur ; for me- 
thinks I am marvelous hairy about the face ; and I am such a 
tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must scratch. 

Titania. What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love? 

Bottom. I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let's have 
the tongs and the bones. 

Titania. Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat. 

Bottom. Truly, a peck of provender: I could munch your 
good dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle^ of 
hay : good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow. 

Titania. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek 
The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee thence new nuts. 

Bottom. I had rather have a handful or two of dried peas. 
But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me : I have an ex- 
position^ of sleep come upon me. 

Tita7iia. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. — 
1 Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away."^ \ Exeunt fairies. 

1 Overflowed. 2 Hand or fist. 3 Discard. 

■ * Cavalier. ^ Bundle. 6 Disposition. 

7 " Be all ways away," i.e., disperse yourselves in every direction. 



68 SHAKESPEARE. [act iv. 

So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle 

Gently entwist ; the female ivy so 

Enrings the barky fingers of the elm. 

O, how I love thee ! how I dote on thee ! [ They sleep. 



Enter PuCK. 

Oberon. \Advancing\ Welcome, good Robin. Seest thou this 
sweet sight? 
Her dotage now I do begin to pity ; 
For, meeting her of late behind the wood, 
Seeking sweet favors for this hateful fool, 
I did upbraid her and fall out with her ; 
For she his hairy temples then had rounded 
With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers ; 
And that same dew, which sometime on the buds 
Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls, 
Stood now within the pretty flowerets' eyes 
Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail. 
When I had at my pleasure taunted her, 
And she in mild terms begg'd my patience, 
I then did ask of her her changeling child ; 
Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent 
To bear him to my bower in fairyland. 
And now I have the boy, I will undo 
This hateful imperfection of her eyes : 
And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp 
From off the head of this Athenian swain ; 
That, he awaking when the other do, 
May all to Athens back again repair, 
And think no more of this night's accidents 
But as the fierce vexation of a dream. 
But first I will release the fairy queen. 

Be as thou wast wont to be ; 

See as thou wast wont to see : 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 69 

Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower 
Hath such force and blessed power. 
Now, my Titania ; wake 3^ou, my sweet queen. 

2lta?iia. My Oberon! what visions have I seen! 
Methought I was enamor'd of an ass. 
Oberoji. There lies your love. 

Titania. How came these things to pass? 

O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now! 

Oberoji. Silence awhile. — Robin, take off this head. — 
Titania, music call ; and strike more dead 
Than common sleep of all these five^ the sense. 

Titania. Music, ho! music, such as charmeth sleep! 

\Music, still. 
Puck. Now, when thou wak'st, with thine own fool's eyes peep. 
Oberon. Sound, music! — Come, my queen, take hands with 
me, 
And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be. 
Now thou and I are new in amity. 
And will to-morrow midnight solemnly 
Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly, 
And bless it to all fair posterity. 
There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be 
Wedded, with Theseus, all in joUity. 

FiicJz. Fairy king, attend, and mark : 

I do hear the morning lark. 
Oberoji. Then, my queen, in silence sad,^ 
Trip we after the night's shade : 
We the globe can compass soon, 
Swifter than the wand'ring moon. 
Titania. Come, my lord, and in our flight 
Tell me how it came this night 
That I sleeping here was found 
With these mortals on the ground. [Exeunt. 

\ Horns winded within, 

1 The five Athenians, Hermia, Helena, Bottom, etc. 2 Grave. 



70 SHAKESPEARE. [act iv. 

Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, and train. 

Theseus, Go, one of you, find out the forester ; 
For now our observation ^ is perform' d ; 
And since we have the vaward^ of the day, 
My love shall hear the music of my hounds. 
Uncouple ^ in the western valley ; let them go : 
Dispatch, I say, and find the forester. — \Exit aji Attenda7it. 

We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top, 
And mark the musical confusion 
Of hounds and echo in conjunction. 

Hippolyta. I was with Hercules and Cadmus* once, 
When in a wood of Crete they bay'd^ the bear 
With hounds of Sparta : never did I hear 
Such gallant chiding ; for, besides the groves. 
The skies, the fountains, every region near 
Seem'd all one mutual cry. I never heard 
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder. 

Theseus. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, 
So flew'd,^ so sanded,^ and their heads are hung 
With ears that sweep away the morning dew ; 
Crook-knee'd, and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls ; 
Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells, 
Each under each. A cry more tunable 
Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn. 
In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly : 
Judge when you hear. — But, soft! what nymphs are these? 

1 Observance of May Day custom. 

2 Vanward, or forepart. ^ Unchain ; slip the leash. 

4 Hercules and Cadmus are mythical heroes of antiquity. The most 
remarkable achievements of the former are known as the Twelve Labors of 
Hercules. The latter is credited with inventing, or introducing into Greece, 
the letters of the alphabet. 

^ Hunted ; chased. ^ Flews are the overhanging chops of a hound. 

"7 Of a sandy color. 



SCENE I.J A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 7^ 

h 

Egeus. My lord, this is my daughter here asleep ; 
And this, Lysander ; this Demetrius is ; 
This Helena, old Nedar's Helena : 
I wonder of their being here together. 

Theseus. No doubt they rose up early to observe 
The rite of May,i and, hearing our intent, 
Came here in grace of our solemnity. — 
But speak, Egeus ; is not this the day 
That Hermia should give answer of her choice? 
Egeus. It is, my lord. 
Theseus. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns. 

[Horns and shout within. Lysandei^, Demetrius, 
Hele7ia, and Hermia, wake and start up. 
Good-morrow, friends. Saint Valentine 2 is past: 
Begin these wood birds but to couple now? 
Lysander. Pardon, my lord. 

Theseus. I pray you all, stand up. 

I know you two are rival enemies : 
How comes this gentle concord in the world, 
That hatred is so far from jealousy, 
To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity? 

Lysander. My lord, I shall reply amazedly, 
Half sleep, half waking : but as yet, I swear, 
I cannot truly say how I came here ; 
But, as I think, — for truly would I speak, 
And now I do bethink me, so it is, — 
I came with Hermia hither : our intent 
Was to be gone from Athens, where we might. 
Without the peril of th' Athenian law — 

Egeus. Enough, enough, my lord ; you have enough 
I beg the law, the law, upon his head. 



1 May Day. 

2 St. Valentine's day, when birds were supposed to choose their mates for 

the season. 



72 SHAKESPEARE. [act iv. 

They would have stolen away ; they would, Demetrius, 
Thereby to have defeated you and me, 
You of your wife and me of my consent, 
Of my consent that she should be your wife. 

Demeti'iits. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth, 
Of this their purpose hither to this wood ; 
And I in fury hither follow'd them, 
Fair Helena in fancy ^ following me. 
But, my good lord, I wot not by what power, — 
But by some power it is, — my love to Hermia, 
Melted as doth the snow, seems to me now 
As the remembrance of an idle gawd^ 
Which in my childhood I did dote upon ; 
And all the faith, the virtue of my heart, 
The object and the pleasure of mine eye, 
Is only Helena. To her, my lord. 
Was I betroth'd ere I saw Hermia: 
But, like in sickness, did I loathe this food ; 
But, as in health, come to my natural taste. 
Now I do wish it, love it, long for it, 
And will for evermore be true to it. 

Theseus. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met; 
Of this discourse we shall hear more anon. — 
Egeus, I will overbear your will ; 
For in the temple, by and by, with us, 
These couples shall eternally be knit : 
And, for^ the morning now is something worn, 
Our purpos'd hunting shall be set aside. 
Away with us to Athens ; three and three. 
We'll hold a feast in great solemnity. — 
Come, Hippolyta. 

\Exeunf Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, and train. 

Dejnetrius. These things seem small and undistinguishable. 
Like far-off mountains turned into clouds. 

1 " In fancy," i.e., impelled by love. 2 Bauble. ^ Since. 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT* S DREAM. 73 

Hermia. Methinks I see these things with parted eye, 
When everything seems double. 

Helcjia. So methinks : 

And I have found Demetrius, like a jewel, 
Mine own, and not mine own.^ 

Demetrius. It seems to me 

That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think 
The duke was here, and bid us follow him? 

Hertnia. Yea ; and my father. 

Helena. And Hippolyta. 

Lysander. And he did bid us follow to the temple. 

Deinetrius. Why, then, we are awake : let's follow him ; 
And by the way let us recount our dreams. \Exeu7it. 

Bottom. \A7vaking\ When my cue comes, call me, and I will 
answer: my next is, "Most fair Pyramus." — Heigh-ho! — Peter 
Quince! Flute, the bellows mender! Snout, the tinker! Starve- 
ling! God's my life,^ stolen hence, and left me asleep! I have 
had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of 
man to say what dream it was : man is but an ass, if he go about 
to expound this dream. Methought I was — there is no man 
can tell what. Methought I was, — and methought I had, — but 
man is but a patched fool,^ if he will offer to say what methought 
I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not 
seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, 
nor his heart to report, what my dream was. I will get Peter 
Quince to write a ballad of this dream : it shall be called Bot- 
tom's Dream, because it hath no bottom ; and I will sing it in 
the latter end of a play, before the duke : peradventure, to make 
it the more gracious, I shall sing it at her death.* \Exit. 

1 " And I have found," etc., i.e., and by this double vision I seem to find 
my precious Demetrius to be my own and yet not my own. 

2 A petty oath, a contraction of " as God is my life." 

3 "Patched fool," i.e., motley fool, referring to the party-colored or 
patched dress of the professional fool. 

* Bottom means he will sing his dream to divert attention from Thisbe's 
death. 



74 SHAKESPEARE. [act iv. 

/ Scene II. Athens. Quince's House. 

Enter Quince, Flute, Snout, and Starveling. 

Quince. Have you sent to Bottom's house ? is he come home 
yet? 

Starveling. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is trans- 
ported.i 

Flute. If he come not, then the play is marred: it goes not 
forward, doth it ? 

Quince. It is not possible : you have not a man in all Athens 
able to discharge Pyramus but he. 

Flute. No, he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft man 
in Athens. 

Quince. Yea, and the best person too ; and he is a very para- 
mour for a sweet voice. 

Flute. You must say "paragon:" a paramour is, God bless 
us, a thing of naught. 

Enter Snug. 

Snug. Masters, the duke is coming from the temple, and there 
is two or three lords and ladies more married. If our sport had 
gone forward, we had all been made men. 

Flute. O, sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a 
day during his life ; he could not have 'scaped sixpence a day : 
an the duke had not given him sixpence a day for playing Pyr- 
amus, I'll be hanged ; he would have deserved it : sixpence a day 
in Pyramus, or nothing. 

Enter Bottom. 

Bottom. Where are these lads? where are these hearts? 
Quince. Bottom! — O most courageous ^ day! O most happy 
hour! 

1 Transformed. 

2 Perhaps Quince means " courteous," i.e., kind; the sense, of course, is 
"lucky." 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 75 

Bottom. Masters, I am to discourse wonders : but ask me not 
what ; for if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. I will tell you 
everything, right as it fell out. 

Qidnce. Let us hear, sweet Bottom. 

Bottom. Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, that 
the duke hath dined. Get your apparel together, good strings to 
your beards, new ribbons to your pumps ; meet presently at the 
palace ; every man look o'er his part ; for the short and the long 
is, our play is preferred. In any case, let Thisby have clean linen ; 
and let not him that plays the lion pare his nails, for they shall 
hang out for the lion's claws. And, most dear actors, eat no 
onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath ; and I do not 
doubt but to hear them say, it is a sweet comedy. No more 
words; away! go, away! [Exeunt. 

ACT V. 

Scene I. Athens. The Palace of Theseus. 

Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Pi^ilostrate, Lords, and Attendants. 

Hippolyta. 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of. 

Theseus. More strange than true : I never may believe 
These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.i 
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, 
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend 
More than cool reason ever comprehends. 
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet 
Are of imagination all compact :2 
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold ; 
That is, the madman : the lover, all as frantic, 
Sees Helen's 3 beauty in a brow of Egypt: 

1 Silly tales. 2 Composed. ^ / 

3 The Spartan Helen, the most beautiful woman of her time, wif^ of Mene- 

laus, King of Sparta. Her abduction by Paris, Prince of Troy^, brought 

about the Trojan War, the theme of Homer's Iliad, 




/ SHAKESPEARE. [act v. 

-.. he poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, 

Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven ; 

And as imagination bodies forth 

The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen 

Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing 

A local habitation and a name. 

Such tricks hath strong imagination. 

That, if it would but apprehend some joy, 

It comprehends some bringer of that joy ; 

Or in the night, imagining some fear, 

How easy is a bush suppos'd a bear! 

Hi^polyta. But all the story of the night told over, 
And all their minds transfigur'd so together, 
More witnesseth than fancy's images, 
And grows to something of great constancy,^ 
But, howsoever,^ strange and admirable. 

Theseus. Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth. 

Enter Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena. 

Joy, gentle friends! joy and fresh days of love 
Accompany your hearts! 

Lysander. More than to us 

Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed ! 

Theseus. Come now; what masques, what dances shall we 
have, 
To wear away this long age of three hours 
Between our after-supper and bedtime? 
Where is our usual manager of mirth? 
What revels are in hand? Is there no play. 
To ease the anguish of a torturing hour? 
Call Philostrate. 

Philostrate. Here, mighty Theseus. 

Theseus. Say, what abridgment^ have you for this evening ? ^ 

1 Consistency. ^ Jn any case. ^ Pastime. 



.SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 77 

What masque ? what music ? How shall we beguile 
^ The lazy time, if not with some delight ? 

Philostrate. There is a brief ^ how many sports are ripe : 
Make choice of which your highness will see first. 

[ Giving a paper. 

Theseus. \Reads\ ''The battle with the Ce7itaurs,^ to be sung 
By an Athenian eujiiich to the harpy 
We'll none of that : that have I told my love, 
In glory of my kinsman Hercules. 
\Reads\ ' ' The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals y 
Tearing the Thracian sitiger ^ in their rage. " 
That is an old device ; and it was play'd 
When I from Thebes came last a conqueror. 
\^Reads\ "■ The thrice three Muses mourning for the death 
Of Learning, late deceased in beggary.'''' 
That is some satire, keen and critical, 
Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony. 
\Reads^ ''A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus 
And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth. ^^ 
Merry and tragical! Tedious and brief! 

1 List. 

2 The centaur was a mythical monster having the body and legs of a 
horse, with human head and arms. Theseus visited the court of Adrastus, 
king of Argos, to witness the marriage of his friend Pirithous, prince of the 
Lapithse, with the daughter of that king. Among other guests were Hercules 
and a number of centaurs. The latter, struck with the bride's beauty, at- 
tempted to kidnap her, but were repulsed by the Lapithge, aided by Theseus 
and Hercules. 

3 Orpheus : who, as the story runs, was the son of Apollo and Calliope, 
whose musical gifts he inherited. On the death of his wife, Eurydice, heart- 
broken and disconsolate, Orpheus retired to the solitudes of a forest, where 
he was one day overtaken by a band of gay Bacchantes (devotees of Bacchus) 
and bade to play a lively tune that they might dance ; but, dazed with grief, 
he could not comply with their demands ; and " the tipsy Bacchanals," " en- 
raged at the sad notes which alone he could now draw from his instrument, 
tore him limb from limb, and cast his mangled remains into the Hebrus 
River." (See Guerber's Myths of Greece and Rome.) 



78 SHAKESPEARE. [act v. 

That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow. 
How shall we find the concord of this discord? 
\/ Philostrate. A play there is, my lord, some ten words long, 
Which is as brief as I have known a play ; 
But by ten words, my lord, it is too long. 
Which makes it tedious ; for in all the play 
There is not one word apt, one player fitted. 
And tragical, my noble lord, it is ; 
For Pyramus therein doth kill himself : 
Which, when I saw rehears'd, I must confess. 
Made mine eyes water ; but more merry tears 
The passion of loud laughter never shed. 

Theseus. What are they that do play it? 

Philostrate. Hard-handed men that work in Athens here, 
Which never labor'd in their minds till now ; 
And now have toil'd their unbreath'd^ memories 
With this same play, against your nuptial. 

Theseus. And we will hear it. 
■ Philostrate. No, my noble lord ; 

It is not for you : I have heard it over, 
And it is nothing, nothing in the world, 
Unless you can find sport in their intents. 
Extremely stretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain. 
To do you service. * • 

Theseus. I will hear that play ; 

For never anything can be amiss, 
When simpleness and duty tender it. 
Go, bring them in : — and take your places, ladies. 

ypxit Philostrate. 

Hippolyta. I love not to see wretchedness o'ercharg'd 
And duty in his^ service perishing. 

Theseus. Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing. 

Hippolyta. He says they can do nothing in this kind. 

1 Unpracticed. 2 Its, 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 79 

Theseus. The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing. 
Our sport shall be to take what they mistake : 
And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect ^ 
Takes it in might, not merit.^ 
Where I have come, great clerks ^ have pm^posed 
To greet me with premeditated welcomes ; 
Where I have seen them shiver and look pale, 
Make periods in the midst of sentences, 
Throttle-^ their practic'd accent in their fears. 
And in conclusion dumbly have broke off. 
Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet. 
Out of this silence yet I pick'd a welcome ; 
And in the modesty of fearful duty 
I read as much as from the rattling tongue 
Of saucy and audacious eloquence. 
Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity 
In least speak most, to my capacity.^ 

Reenter Philostrate. 

Philostrate. So please your grace, the Prologue is address' d.^ 
Theseus. Let him approach. \FIounsh of trumpets. 

Enter Quince as the Prologue. 

Prologue. " If we offend, it is with our good will. 

That you should think, we come not to offend. 
But with good will. To show our simple skill, 

That is the true beginning of our end. 
Consider then we come but in despite. 

We do not come as minding to content you, 
Our true intent is. All for your delight 

1 Consideration. 

2 " Takes it in," etc., i.e., judges by the intention rather than by the 
merit of the actual performance. 

3 Learned men. ■* Choke in the utterance. 
5 Judgment. ^ Ready. 



8o SHAKESPEARE. [act v. 

We are not here. That you should here repent you, 
The actors are at hand, and by their show 
You shall know all that you are like to know." 

Theseus. This fellow doth not stand upon points. 

Ly Sander. He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt ; he 
knows not the stop. A good moral, my lord : it is not enough 
to speak, but to speak true. 

Hippolyta. Indeed he hath play'd on his prologue like a child 
on a recorder ; ^ a sound, but not in government. 

Theseus. His speech was like a tangled chain ; nothing im- 
paired, but all disordered. Who is next? 

Enter Pyramus and Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine, and Lion. 

Prologue. '' Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show ; 

But wonder on, till truth make all things plain. 
This man is Pyramus, if you would know ; 

This beauteous lady Thisby is certain^ 
This man, with lime and roughcast, doth present 

Wall, that vile wall which did these lovers sunder ; 
And through Wall's chink, poor souls, they are content 

To whisper ; at the which let no man wonder. 
This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn, 

Presenteth Moonshine ; for, if you will know, 
By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn 

To meet at Ninus' tomb^ there, there to woo. 
This grisly beast, which Lion hight^ by name, 
The trusty Thisby, coming first by night. 
Did scare awa)r, or rather did affright ; 
And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall. 

Which Lion vile with bloody moUth did stain. 
Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall. 

And finds his trusty Thisby's mantle slain : 
Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade, 

1 A musical instrument resembling the flageolet. ^ Called. 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 8i 

He bravely broach'd his boiling bloody breast ; 
And Thisby tarrying in mulberry shade, 

His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest, 
Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain. 
At large discourse, while here they do remain." 

[Exetmt Prologue, Pyra7nus, T/iisbe, Lion, and Moo7ishine. 

Theseus. I wonder if the lion be to speak. 

Demetrius. No wonder, my lord : one lion may, when many 
asses do. 

Wall. " In this same interlude it doth befall 
That I, one Snout by name, present a wall ; 
And such a wa.ll, as I would have you think, 
That had in it a crannied hole or chink. 
Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby, 
Did whisper often very secretly. 
This loam, this roughcast, and this stone, doth show 
That I am that same wall ; the truth is so : 
And this the cranny is, right and sinister,^ 
Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper." 

Theseus. Would you desire lime and hair to speak better ? 

Demetrius. It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard dis- 
course, my lord. 

Reenter Pyramus. 

Theseus. Pyramus draws near the wall : silence ! 

Pyramus. "O grim-look'd night! O night with hue so black! 

night, which ever art when day is not ! 
O night, O night ! alack, alack, alack, 

1 fear my Thisby' s promise is forgot! — 
And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall. 

That stand'st between her father's ground and mine! 
Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall, 

Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne ! 

[ Wall holds up his fingers. 
1 Left. 



82 SHAKESPEARE. [act v. 

Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for this! 

But what see I ? No Thisby do I see. 
O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss ! 

Curst be thy stones for thus deceiving me ! " 

Theseus. The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse 
again. 

Fyramus. No, in truth, sir, he should not. " Deceiving me " 
is Thisby's cue : she is to enter now, and I am to spy her through 
the wall. You shall see, it will fall pat as I told you. Yonder 
she comes. 

Reenter Thisbe. 

Thishe. "O wall, full often hast thou heard my .moans, 
For parting my fair Pyramus and me! 

My cherry lips have often kiss'd thy stones, 
Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee." 
Fyramus. '' I see a voice : now will I to the chink, 
To spy an I can hear my Thisby's face. 

Thisby!" 

Thisbe. " My love ! thou art my love, I think." 

Pyramus. " Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace ;i 

And, like Limander,^ am I trusty still." 

Thisbe. " And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill." 
Pyramus. " Not Shafalus to Procrus^ was so true." 

1 " Lover's grace," i.e., graceful lover. 

2 Limander is a blunder for Leander, as Helen is for Hero, a beautiful 
maiden of Sestos enamored of Leander of Abydos. He nightly swam the 
Hellespont to meet her, she guiding his course by waving a torch on a high 
tower ; but one stormy night the fearless lover was drowned, and Hero in 
despair threw herself from the tower and perished in the sea. 

3 Bottom would say Cephalus and Procris. Cephalus, a mythical prince 
of Thessaly, was beloved of Aurora, but he preferred and married Procris, 
a lady of Athens. Piqued by this, the goddess, to excite the jealousy of his 
wife, told her that Cephalus was loved of a nymph whom he met in the forest. 
Procris concealed herself in the wood near a favorite resort of her husband, 
who, coming to the spot in the heat of the day, murmured " aura " (" refresh- 
ing breeze "). Procris, supposing him to be addressing her rival, in order to 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 83 

Thisbe. " As Shafalus to Proems, I to you." 
Pyraimcs. " O, kiss me through the hole of this vile wall! " 
Thisbe. " I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all." 
Pyramus. ''Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway ? " 
Thisbe. "'Tide^ life, 'tide death, I come without delay." 

[Exeunt Pyramus and Tliisbe. 

Wall. " Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so ; 

And, being done, thus Wall away doth go." \Exit, 

Theseus. Now is the mural ^ down between the two neighbors. 

T)e?netrius. No remedy, my lord, when walls are so willful to 

hear without warning. 

Hippolyta. This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard. 
Theseus. The best in this kind are but shadows ; and the worst 
are no worse, if imagination amend them. 

Hippolyta. It must be your imagination then, and not theirs. 
Theseus. If we imagine no worse of them than they of them- 
selves, they may pass for excellent men. Here come two noble 
beasts in, a man and a lion. 

Reenter Lion and Moonshine. 

Lion. " You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear 

The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor, 
May now perchance both quake and tremble here, 

When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar. 
Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am 
A lion fell, nor else no lion's dam ;^ 
For, if I should as lion come in strife 
Into this place, 'twere pity on my life." 

Theseus. A very gentle beast, and of a good conscience. 

get sight of her made a movement that Cephalus noticed, and thinking some 
wild beast was lurking in the thicket, he cast a javelin into its midst, which 
pierced the bosom of his wife with a mortal wound. 

1 Betide; happen. 2 Wall. 

3 " Then know," etc., i.e., then know that I am neither a lion nor a lion- 
ess, but one Snug the joiner, in a lion's skin. 



84 SHAKESPEARE. [act v. 

Demetrius. The very best at a beast, my lord, that e'er I saw. 

Ly Sander. This lion is a very fox for his valor. 

Theseus. True ; and a goose for his discretion. 

Demetrius. Not so, my lord ; for his valor cannot carry his 
discretion ; and the fox carries the goose. 

Theseus. His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his valor ; for 
the goose carries not the fox. It is well : leave it to his discre- 
tion, and let us listen to the moon. 

Moonshine. '' This lanthorn doth the homed moon present ; " — 

Demetrius. He should have worn the horns on his head. 

Theseus. He is no crescent, and his horns are invisible within 
the circumference. 

Moonshine. " This lanthorn doth the horned moon present ; 
Myself the man i' the moon do seem to be." 

Theseus. This is the greatest error of all the rest: the man 
should be put into the lanthorn. How is it else the man i' the 
moon? 

Demetrius. He dares not come there for the candle ; for, you 
see, it is already in snuff. ^ 

Hippolyia. I am aweary of this moon : would he would change ! 

Theseus. It appears, by his small light of discretion, that he is 
in the wane ; but yet, in courtesy, in all reason, we must stay the 
time. 

Ly Sander. Proceed, Moon. 

Moonshine. " All that I have to say is to tell you that the lan- 
thorn is the moon ; I, the man in the moon ; this thorn bush, my 
thorn bush ; and this dog, my dog." 

Demetrius. Why, all these should be in the lanthorn ; for they 
are in the moon. But silence ! here comes Thisbe. 

Reenter Thisbe. 

Thisbe. "This is old Ninny's tomb. Where is my love?" 
Lion. \Roaring\ "Oh" \Thisbe runs off. 

1 Demetrius quibbles on the two meanings of this word : "To take of- 
fense," and " the burnt wick of a candle." 



CENE I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 85 

De?netrius, Well roared, Lion. 
Theseus. Well run, Thisbe. 

Hippolyta. Well shone, Moon. — Truly, the moon shines with 
a good grace. [ The Lion shakes Thisbe' s majitle^ and exit. 

Theseus. Well moused,^ Lion. 
Demetrius. And then came Pyramus. 
Lysander, And so the lion vanished. 

Reenter Pyramus. 

Pyramus. " Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams ; 
I thank thee. Moon, for shining now so bright ; 
For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering gleams, 
I trust to take of truest Thisby sight. — 
But stay, O spite! 
But mark, poor knight. 
What dreadful dole is here! 
Eyes, do you see? 
How can it be? 
O dainty duck! O dear! 
Thy mantle good, 
What, stain'd with blood! 
Approach, ye Furies fell! 
O Fates, come, conie, 
Cut thread and thrum ;2 
Quail, crush, conclude, and quell ! " ^ 
Theseus. This passion,^ and the death of a dear friend, would 
go near to make a man look sad. 

Hippolyta. Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man. 
Pyra7nus. '' O wherefore. Nature, didst thou hons frame? 
Since lion vile hath here defiower'd my dear : 

1 Torn in pieces. 

2 Thrums are the tufts at the ends of weavers' threads when woven. 

3 Kill. 

4 This word is used by Shakespeare to denote any strong emotion. 



86 SHAKESPEARE, [act v. 

Which is — no, no — which was the fairest dame 

That Hv'd, that lov'd, that Hk'd, that look'd with cheer. 
Come, tears, confound ; 
Out, sword, and wound 
The pap of Pyramus ; 
Ay, that left pap. 

Where heart doth hop : \Stabs himself. 

Thus die I, thus, thus, ,thus. 
Now am I dead. 
Now am I fled ; 
My soul is in the sky : 
Tongue, lose thy light ; 

Moon, take thy flight : \Exit Moonshine. 

Now die, die, die, die, die." \Dies. 

. Demetrius. No die, but an ace, for him ; for he is but one. 

Ly Sander. Less than ace, man ; for he is dead ; he is nothing. 

Theseus. With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover, and 

prove an ass. 

Hippolyta. How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisbe 
comes back and finds her lover? 

Theseus. She will find him by starlight. Here she comes; 
and her passion ends the play. 

Reenter Thisbe. 

Hippolyta. Methinks she should not use a ^ong one for such a 
Pyramus : I hope she will be brief. 

Demetrius. A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus, 
which Thisbe, is the better ; he for a man, God warrant us ; she 
for a woman, God bless us. 

Lysander. She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes. 

Demetrius. And thus she moans, videlicet: ^ — 

Thisbe. " Asleep, my love? 

What, dead, my dove ? 

1 Ordinarily used in its contracted form of viz. (" namely"). 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 87 

O Pyramus, arise! 

Speak, speak. Quite dumb? 
Dead, dead? A tomb 
Must cover thy sweet eyes. 
These hly lips, 
This cherry nose, 
These yellow cowslip cheeks, 
Are gone, are gone. 
Lovers, make moan ! 
His eyes were green as leeks. . 
O Sisters Three,^ 
Come, come to me. 
With hands as pale as milk; 
Lay them in goi;e, 
Since you have shore 2 
With shears his thread of silk. 
Tongue, not a word : 
Come, trusty sword ; 
CJome, blade, my breast imbrue : \Stabs herself. 
And, farewell, friends ; 
Thus Thisby ends : 
Adieu, adieu, adieu." \pies. 

Theseus, Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead. 
Demetrius. Ay, and Wall too. 

Bottom. \Starting up\ No, I assure you ; the wall is down that 
parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the epilogue, or 
to hear a Bergomask dance ^ between two of our company? 
Theseus. No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no 

1 The three Fates of ancient mythology who controlled the birth and life 
of mankind. Clotho, the youngest, presided over the moment of birth, and 
held a distaff in her hand ; Lachesis spun out all the events and actions of 
life; and Atropos, the eldest, cut the thread of "human life with a pair of 
shears. 

2 Shorn. 

3 A burlesque dance, having its name from Bergamo, in Italy. 



SS SHAKESPEARE. [act v. 

excuse. Never excuse ; for when the players are all dead, there 
need none to be blamed. Marry, if he that writ it had played 
Pyramus and hanged himself in Thisbe's garter, it would have 
been a fine tragedy: and so it is, truly; and very notably dis- 
charged. But, come, your Bergomask : let your epilogue alone. 

\A dance. 
The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve : 
Lovers, to bed ; 'tis almost fairy time. 
I fear we shall outsleep the coming mom 
As much as we this night have overwatch'd. 
This palpable-gross play hath well beguil'd 
The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed. 
A fortnight hold we this solemnity, 
In nightly revels and new jollity. \Exeunt. 

Enter PuCK. 

Puck. Now the hungry lion roars, 

And the wolf behowls the moon ; 
Whilst the heavy plowman snoreS*, 

All with weary task fordone.^ 
Now the wasted brands do glow, 

Whilst the screech owl, screeching loud, 
Puts the wretch that lies in woe 

In remembrance of a shroud. 
Now it is the time of night 

That the graves, all gaping wide, 
Every one lets forth his sprite, 

In the church- way paths to glide: 
And we fairies, that do run 

By the triple Hecate's ^ team, 

1 Exhausted. 

2 Hecate was known as Luna in heaven, Diana on earth, and Hecate or 
Proserpina in the lower regions, and was supposed to preside over magic and 
enchantments. She is generally represented as a woman with three heads. 
The word has two syllables here (" Hec'ate"). 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 89 

From the presence of the sun, 

Following darkness like a dream, 
Now are frolic ; not a mouse 
Shall disturb this hallow'd house : 
I am sent with broom before, 
To sweep the dust behind the door. 

Enter Oberon and Titania, with their train. 

Oberon. Through the house give glimmering light. 
By the dead and drowsy fire ; 

Every elf and fairy sprite 

Hop as light as bird from brier; 

And this ditty, after me 

Sing, and dance it trippingly. 
Titania. First, rehearse your song by rote, 

To each word a warbling note : 

Hand in hand, with fairy grace. 

Will we sing, and bless this place. \So7ig and dance. 
Oberon. Now, until the break of day. 

Through this house each fairy stray. 

To the best bridebed will we ; 

Which by us shall blessed be. 

So shall all the couples three 

Ever true in loving be ; 

And the blots of Nature's hand 

Shall not in their issue stand ; 

Never mole, harelip, nor scar. 

Nor mark prodigious,^ such as are 

Despised in nativity, 

Shall upon their children be. 

With this field-dew consecrate, 

Every fairy take his gait ;2 

And each several chamber bless. 



1 Portentous. 



2 Course or way. 




90 SHAKESPEARE. [act v. 

Through this palace, with sweet peace ; 
And the owner of it blest, 
Ever shall in safety rest. 
Trip away ; make no stay ; 
Meet me all by break of day. 

\Exeunt Oberofi, Titania, and train 
Puck. If we shadows have offended, 

Think but this, and all is mended. 

That you have but slumber'd here 

While these visions did appear. 

And this weak and idle theme. 

No more yielding but a dream, 

Gentles, do not reprehend : ^ 

If you pardon, we will mend. 

And, as I'm an honest Puck, 

If we have unearned luck 

Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue, 

We will make amends ere long ; 

Else the Puck a liar call : 

So, good-night unto you all. 

Give me your hands, if we be friends. 

And Robin shall restore amends. \Exit. 

1 Blame. 



ANALYSIS AND QUESTIONS 

The Sources 

The principal human episode in the plot of "A Midsummer-Night's 
Dream" — the crossed loves of Lysander and Hermia, of Demetrius and 
Helena, which finally run smooth through the good agencies of Oberon — 
is, as far as we know at present, original with Shakespeare, although 
such themes are reminiscent of the material used by Italian and French 
writers of romance. The story of the nuptials of Theseus and Hippolyta 
reveals the influence of Chaucer's "The Knight's Tale" and of Plu- 
tarch's ''Life of Theseus" as translated by Sir Thomas North (1575; 
reissued with additions in 1595). 

Much of the fanciful detail of fairy lore was undoubtedly derived 
from current popular tradition and elaborated from the poet's own 
knowledge of rural superstitions. Oberon, the king of the fairies, ap- 
pears in "Huon of Bordeaux," a French romance translated by Lord 
Berners about 1534, but apart from a few fleeting suggestions the fairy- 
king of the romance bears little resemblance to Shakespeare's creation. 
Another very dissimilar Oberon is introduced in Robert Greene's play, 
"The Scottish Historic of James IV," which was pubHshed in 1598. 
There is record of a non -extant play on Huon of Bordeaux which was 
performed in 1593 and from which the poet may have obtained some 
hints for his plot. Oberon's faithful Puck is a creature of purely Eng- 
lish superstition and affords no literary prototype. Under his popular 
name of Robin Goodfellow, which he also bears in this play, he is 
mentioned in Reginald Scot's "The Discoverie of Witchcraft" (1584), 
in Tarlton's "Newes out of Purgatorie" (1589) and elsewhere. The 
burlesque tragedy of "Pyramus and Thisbe" may be traced to the 
serious recital of their ill-fated loves in Chaucer's "The Legend of 
Good Women" or in Arthur Golding's translation (1567) of Ovid's 
"Metamorphoses." It is, however, impossible to indicate the immediate 
source of a story so widely known in so many languages throughout 

91 



92 ANALYSIS AND QUESTIONS. 

medieval Europe. The buffoonery of the Athenian artisans seems to 
be essentially Shakespeare's own invention. 

At most the poet obtained but few suggestions here and there from 
the sources that have been enumerated. Among his more important 
plays there is not another (with the possible exception of "The Tem- 
pest") that reveals so little indebtedness to previous writers. This 
circumstance seems to indicate the poet's personal pleasure in weav- 
ing for his appreciative audiences this delightful web of romance, 
comedy and fairy lore. Thomas Campbell expressed this thought most 
aptly when he wrote: "Of all his works, the 'Midsummer-Night's 
Dream' leaves the strongest impression on my mind, that this miserable 
world must have, for once at least, contained a happy man. This play 
is so purely delicious, so little intermixed with the painful passions 
from which poetry distils her sterner sweets, so fragrant with hilarity, 
so bland and yet so bold, that I cannot imagine Shakespeare's mind to 
have been in any other frame than that of healthful ecstasy when the 
sparks of inspiration thrilled through his brain in composing it." 

The most useful manual for a fuller study of the sources of this 
comedy is Frank Sidgwick's "The Sources and Analogues of 'A 
Midsummer-Night's Dream' " (1908), which forms a volume in the 
Shakespeare Library, edited by Dr. Gollancz. 

The Plot . ' 

The five acts of "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" are divided into 
nine scenes — a small number compared with the rest of Shakespeare's 
plays, which average at least twice that number of scenes to the play. 
Apart from the opening and closing scenes, which are laid in the palace 
of Theseus, and the two brief glimpses of the ludicrous happenings at 
the home of Quince in Athens, the remaining five scenes occur in various 
parts of the enchanted wood. Several critics maintain that the portion 
of the first scene which follows the exit of all but Lysander and Hermia 
(p. 20) was originally part of a separate street scene that was omitted 
in the revision of an older form of the play. To support this theory 
they point out that Theseus and Egeus would not be likely to leave the 
unhappy lovers alone under the circumstances; nor would Lysander 
and Hermia carry on their love-making in a public room of the ducal 
palace. The latter contention carries no conviction, as the street would 
afford even less privacy; but dramatic convention gave the Elizabethan 



ANALYSIS AND QUESTIONS. 93 

playwright great freedom in such matters. It is, after all, hardly neces- 
sary to glean additional evidence to substantiate the theory that this 
play represents the somewhat hasty revision of an older text in which 
certain inconsistencies and not a few halting verses were suffered to 
remain. 

The remarkable fact is not that these contradictions occur in the 
text, but that Shakespeare at that early period in his dramatic career 
should have been able to produce from his varied material so note- 
worthy an example of dramatic construction. The rapid transition from 
the ducal palace to the artisan's home, thence to the neighboring wood 
where royalty, the unhappy lovers, the denizens of fairyland and the 
"base mechanicals" all participate in the action, is managed with con- 
summate skill and a due regard for artistic harmony. So v/ell has 
Shakespeare distributed the interest in his four groups of characters 
that at least three of these groups have been regarded by competent 
though dissentient critics as the real center of the plot. 

At first sight the drama seems to revolve about the crossed loves of 
the two Athenian couples who engross most of our attention; but it 
seems more logical to regard the fairies as the real center of action 
since from the potency of Oberon's magic flower springs the full de- 
velopment of the story. It is Oberon and his mischievous Puck who 
unwittingly increase the lovers' perplexities and later set all things 
right; it is the same precious pair of spirits who effect the marvelous 
''translation" of poor Bottom and afterwards remove all outward 
evidences of the conceited weaver's asininity. The sovereigns Theseus 
and Hippolyta are quite disassociated from the elfin element of the 
play, but they are directly interested in the cause of the Athenian lovers 
and in the dramatic aspirations of the clowns. Mr. William Winter in 
his preface to the acting edition of the play, which he prepared for the 
late Augustin Daly's company, wrote as follows: "In no other of his 
works has Shakespeare more brilliantly shown that complete dominance 
of theme which is manifested in the perfect preservation of proportion. 
The strands of action are braided with astonishing grace. The fourfold 
story is never allowed to lapse into dulness or obscurity. There is 
caprice, but no distortion. The supernatural machinery is never 
wrested toward the production of startling or monstrous effects, but it 
deftly impels each mortal personage in the natural line of human de- 
velopment. The dream-spirit is maintained throughout, and perhaps 



94 ANALYSIS AND QUESTIONS. 

it is for this reason, — that the poet was living and thinking and writing 
in the free untrammeled world of his own spacious and airy imagina- 
tion, and not in any definite sphere of this earth, — that *A Midsummer- 
Night's Dream' is so radically superior to the other comedies written 
by him about this period." 

The Characters 

In Shakespeare's "A Midsimimer-Night's Dream" the characteriza- 
tion seems to emphasize the groups rather than the individuals. Among 
the dramatis personce there is hardly a figure that has been drawn with 
the striking individuality manifested in the poet's later delineations of 
humanity. A possible exception might be made in the case of Bottom, 
who stands out prominently among his fellow-artisans as a very con- 
crete personality. Charles Cowden-Clarke calls him "the epitome of 
all the conceited donkeys that ever strutted and straddled on this stage 
of the world." During the seventeenth century Bottom seems to have 
been regarded as the chief person of the play. His adventures were 
made the material for a droll which was produced with success and 
pubHshed in 1661 as "The Merry Conceited Humors of Bottom the 
Weaver." 

Professor Dowden has expressed warm admiration for the portrayal 
of Theseus, whom he regards as the most magnificent figure in the 
early drama of Shakespeare — "a conception of the heroic man of action 
in his hour of enjoyment and leisure." The figures of the lovers Ly- 
sander and Demetrius are but lightly sketched; their limitations as 
character studies become most manifest when they are contrasted with 
such later children of the poet's fancy as Orlando, Benedick and others. 
The Athenian maidens Hermia and Helena are but slightly differ- 
entiated from each other save in stature and in the more spirited, ag- 
gressive nature of the former. 

Shakespeare was evidently more interested in the development of his 
elfin story than in the delineation of his human characters. His de- 
scriptions of the fairy creatures who play so conspicuous a part in the 
comedy are peculiarly his own. Most critics agree that the poet's 
treatment of these tiny beings ranks with the most remarkable triumphs 
of his dramatic art. In the admirable Variorum edition (1895) of this 
play Dr. Horace Howard Fumess writes: "There were no real fairies 
before Shakespeare's. What were called 'fairies' have existed ever 



ANALYSIS AND QUESTIONS. 95 

since stories were told to wide-eyed listeners round a winter's fire. But 
these are not the fairies of Shakespeare, nor the fairies of to-day. Our 
fairies are spirits of another sort, but unless they wear Shakespeare's 
Hvery they are counterfeit." Hudson, Drake (Introduction, p. 11) and 
other critics have marveled at Shakespeare's skill in embodying these 
"airy nothings" and in giving them "a local habitation and a name." 
Many interesting facts concerning these and other elfin characters in 
Shakespeare are collected in Alfred Nutt's "The Fairy Mythology of 
Shakespeare" (1900) and in Margaret Lucy's "Shakespeare and the 
Supernatural" (1906). 

The Verse 

"A Midsummer-Night's Dream" affords much valuable material for 
a study of Shakespeare's verse. One of the most lyrical of plays, it 
reveals a rich variety of measures and a judicious intermingling of 
poetry and prose. In the dramatic scenes that recount the story of 
Theseus and Hippolyta, as well as in those that present the misad- 
ventures of the Athenian lovers, Shakespeare varies from the normal 
blank verse to riming couplets in iambic pentameter. Thus the opening 
scene is written in blank verse to the point where Hermia vows to meet 
Lysander (p. 21); thence to the end of the scene the riming couplet is 
used. Similarly, in the second act, the couplet is employed in the scene 
between Puck and the Fairy, but Oberon and his Queen quarrel in 
blank verse (pp. 30-33). The scene proceeds in the same measure 
until the exit of Demetrius and then continues in couplets to the end. 
In Act III, Scene ii, in which the Athenian lovers are at odds, the 
transition from riming couplets to blank verse occurs in a long speech 
by Helena (p. 56) and the latter measure prevails until the maidens 
withdraw (p. 61); then Oberon and Puck resort once more to the 
couplet. Other examples might be cited from the remaining acts. 

In the fairy scenes Shakespeare employed the riming trochaic tetram- 
eter extensively. The same measure was used later in the super- 
natural scenes of "Macbeth" and "The Tempest." The incantations 
associated with the squeezing of the magic juice upon the eyes of Titania 
and of the deluded lovers (pp. 39, 40, 53, 68) should be compared with 
the witches' charms in "Macbeth." Various other lyrical measures 
occur (pp. 28, 38, 66) in the fairy scenes. 

The comic scenes of the Athenian artisans are written almost en- 



96 ANALYSIS AND QUESTIONS. 

tirely in prose. This is quite in keeping with the usual procedure in 
similar scenes of other plays. It should be observed, however, that in 
both of the scenes between Titania and Bottom (pp. 47-50, 66-67) the 
Fairy Queen speaks in verse, while the translated weaver uses prose, 
apart from his ornithological song (p. 47). 

The rimed verse of the lamentable tragedy, "Pyramus and Thisbe" 
is, of course, intentionally bad. Its shortcomings are emphasized by 
the fact that the interpolated comments of the audience are in prose. 
The burlesque character of these bombastic measures was not lost upon 
the Ehzabethan spectator, who was probably accustomed to verse 
almost as poor but used in all seriousness by less able playwrights. 

Although the play contains many passages of remarkable lyrical 
beauty, it is impossible to accept without qualification Hartley Cole- 
ridge's dictum that it is "all poetry and sweeter poetry was never 
written." The var}ing merit of the verse in different scenes gives 
additional weight to the theory that the present text represents an 
early effort that was afterwards subjected to extensive revision. Grant 
White called attention to such halting couplets as 

"Do not say so, Lysander; say not so. 
What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though?" 

and 

"Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man, 
That I did never, no, nor never can," etc. 

Both of these couplets occur near the end of the second act (p. 42), 
together with other verses that are equally lacking in distinction. 

In scanning Shakespeare's verse due allowance must be made for 
various changes in pronunciation since Elizabethan times. Several 
of these have been indicated in the text. For example: — 

"It stands as an edict' in destiny" (p. 20). 

"Of great reven'ue and she hath no child" (p. 21). 

"That rheu'matic diseases do abound" (p. 32). 

The name of Theseus is usually to be pronounced as a dissyllable, 
but Egeus is regarded as a trisyllabic name, thus: — 

"Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke!" (p. 16). 
"To Theseus must be wedded, and you come" (p. 30). 
"And come, Egeus; you shall go with me" (p. 19). 



ANALYSIS AND QUESTIONS. 97 

"Demetrius and Egeus, go along" (p. 20). 
"But speak, Egeus; is not this the day" (p. 71). 

Verbal forms ending in -ed regularly require the pronunciation of 
the suffix as an extra syllable; wherever the meter does not require a 
separate syllable the spelling -'d is substituted for -ed. For exampl€;— 

"An ass's nole I fixed on his head" (p. 50). 
"I am amazed at your passionate words" (p. 57). 
"I am amaz'd, and know not what to say" (p. 61). 
"Titania wak'd, and straightway lov'd an ass" (p. 51). 

A dozen verses are appended to furnish examples of more or less 
noteworthy departures from the normal iambic pentameter; many 
similar instances will be found in various parts of the play. The student 
should endeavor in each instance to determine the correct scansion of 
the verse. 

"Thanks, good Egeus: what's the news with thee?" (p. 16). 
"Whether if you yield not to your father's choice" (p. 18). 
"I must employ you in some business" (p. 20). 
"So quick bright things come to confusion" (p. 20). 
"A good persuasion: therefore, hear me, Hermia" (p. 21). 
"She never had so sweet a changeHng" (p. 29). 
"The fold stands empty in the drowned field" (p. 31). 
"And even for that do I love you the more" (p. 35). 
"Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn" (p. 47). 
"But hast thou yet latch'd the Athenian's eyes" (p. 51). 
"Have with our needles created both one flower" (p. 57). 
"Uncouple in the western valley; let them go" (p. 70). 

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT 
Act I, Scene i 

1. What inconsistencies result from laying the scene of the play in 
Athens? (p. 15). 

2. The opening fines seem to indicate that the action covers four 
days (p. 15); what is the actual period of action? (see Introduction, 
p. 11). 



pS ANALYSIS AND QUESTIONS. 

3. The marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta is to occur on the night 
of a new moon (p. 15); is this in accord with the later conversation of 
the clowns concerning the moonlight? (p. 45). 

4. Explain the figures of speech in Hippolyta's lines (p. 16). 

5. Was there any such Athenian law as that evoked by Egeus? 

(P- 17)- 

6. What anachronisms occur in the conversation between Theseus 

and Hermia? (p. 18). 

7. Is it natural that Theseus, Egeus and the rest should leave 
Lysander and Hermia by themselves? What is Shakespeare's inten- 
tion? Is the departure of the other characters well managed? (p. 20). 

8. What figures of speech occur in the dialogue between Lysander 
and Hermia? (p. 20). 

9. Why does Lysander tell Hermia that his widowed aunt is rich 
and childless? (p. 21). 

10. Name several poems and stories that refer to the English ob- 
servance of May Day (p. 21). 

11. Are Hermia's vows appropriate to the occasion? (pp. 21-22). 

12. Is it reasonable that Helena should reveal to Demetrius the 
intended flight of Lysander and Hermia? (p. 24). 

Act I, Scene ii 

13. Discuss the trades represented by the group of Athenian ar- 
tisans (p. 24). 

14. What character in another play of Shakespeare's resembles 
Bottom in his inaccurate use of words? 

15. Point out three anachronisms in this scene (pp. 24-27). 

16. Quince assigns to Starveling, Snout and himself the parts of 
Thisby's mother, Pyramus's father and Thisby's father (p. 26); do 
any of these characters appear in the actual performance of the tragedy ? 

(pp. 79-87)- 

17. Why do the artisans rehearse their play at night? (p. 27). 

18. Is there any reason for selecting "the palace wood" for the 
rehearsal, or for meeting at the "duke's oak?" (p. 27). 

Act II, Scene i 

19. Comment upon the speeches of the anonymous fairy (pp. 28-29). 

20. Why are the cowslips called tall? (p. 28). 



ANALYSIS AND QUESTIONS. 99 

21. Contrast the character of Puck with that of Ariel in *'The Tem- 
pest." In what important respects do they differ? 

22. In which of Shakespeare's plays is the Eairy Queen described 
as Queen Mab? (p. 30). 

23. What is the nature of the poetic quarrel between Oberon and 
Titania? (pp. 30-33). 

24. Comment upon Titania's speech concerning the mother of her 
changeUng boy (pp. 32-33). 

25. What figures of speech are found in Oberon's account of the 
mermaid? (p. ^^). 

26. What does Oberon mean by "I am invisible"? (p. 35). 

27. What trait of Demetrius's character is revealed in his harsh 
treatment of Helena? (p. 35). 

28. What is the effect of Helena's appeal? (p. 36). 

29. Is Oberon's prophecy, "Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek 
thy love" fulfilled? (p. 37). 

30. To what elements in the verse are the poetic merits of Oberon's 
long speech due? (p. 37). 

Act II, Scene ii 

31. Is the subject matter of the fairies' song appropriate? (pp. 38-39). 

32. Does Puck's mistake in applying the love charm seem plausible? 
(p. 40). 

33. Explain the figures of speech in Lysander's first speech (p. 42). 

34. Why does Lysander conceive such hatred for Hermia? (p. 43). 

35. Has Hermia's dream any significance in view of the actual event? 

(p. 43)- 

Act III, Scene i 

36. Is the sleeping Titania visible to the artisans? (p. 43). 

37. What contrast can be established between the characters of 
Bottom and Snout? (p. 44). 

38. Why do Snout and Quince return? (p. 47). 

39. Does Bottom show any surprise at the affectionate advances of 
the Fairy Queen? (p. 48). 

40. What does Titania mean by Bottom's "mortal grossness"? 

(p. 48). 

41. Comment upon the names of the fairies attendant upon Titania 

(p. 48). 



lOO ANALYSIS AND QUESTIONS. 

42. Does Puck know that Oberon has anointed Titania's eyes with 
the magic juice? (p. 50). 

43. Is Bottom indeed the "shallowest thickskin of that barren sort?" 

(P- 50)- 

44. What is the effect of the change in tense in Puck's narrative? 

(P- 50). 

45. What impression do we get of Hermia in her scene with Deme- 
trius? (p. 52). 

46. Does Puck in any way justify his mistake? (p. 53). 

47. What trait of Puck's character is revealed in his last remark to 
Oberon? (p. 54). 

48. Explain the figures of speech in Demetrius's address to Helena 

(PP- 54-55)- 

49. Why does Helena at this time recall her schoolgirl friendship 

for Hermia? What figures does she use? (p. 57). 

50. At what point does Hermia's perplexity change to anger? (p. 59). 

51. What varying traits in the characters of Helena and Hermia are 
revealed in their quarrel? (p. 60). 

52. Comment upon Helena's last speech (p. 61). 

53. Does the conclusion of this scene seem plausible? (pp. 64-65). 

Act IV, Scene i 

54. Does Bottom's excursion into fairy realms improve his language ? 
(pp. 67, 73). 

55. Why did Titania finally surrender her changeling boy to Oberon? 
(p. 68). 

56. Does Oberon answer Titania's question, "How came these things 
to pass?" (p. 69). 

57. Does the conversation between Theseus and Hippolyta reveal 
any special knowledge on the part of Shakespeare? (p. 70). 

58. Why does Lysander confess his intended flight with Hermia? 

(P- 71)- 

59. What impels Theseus to deny Egeus's request for the punish- 
ment of Lysander? Is there any hint as to Egeus's opinion of the 
duke's decision? (p. 72). 

Act IV, Scene ii 

60. What does Flute mean by "it goes not forward"? (p. 74). 

61. How is Bottom regarded by his companions? (p. 74). 



ANALYSIS AND QUESTIONS. loi 

62. What is the meaning of "good strings to your beards"? (p. 75). 

63. Where did Bottom get the information that he imparts to the 
other artisans? (p. 75). 

Act V, Scene t 

64. Is Theseus complimentary or otherwise in his famous dehneation 
of the poet? (pp. 75-76). 

65. Are the last two Hnes of Theseus's speech of equal merit with 
the rest? (p. 76). 

66. What admirable qualities in Theseus's character are emphasized 
in his conversation with Philostrate? (p. 78). 

67. Does Shakespeare in any other dramas represent a play within 
a play? 

68. Which artisans play the parts of Wall and Moonshine? (p. 80). 

69. Paraphrase the brief conversation between Theseus and Hip- 
polyta (p. 83). 

70. What is Hippolyta's attitude throughout the rendition of the 
tragedy? (pp. 78-86). 

71. Explain the puns made by Demetrius and Theseus (p. 86). 

72. Comment upon the figures of speech in Thisbe's dying lament 
(pp. 86-87). 

73. In what way is Bottom's remark at the conclusion of the per- 
formance characteristic? (p. 87). 

74. Why does Theseus change from prose to verse? (p. 88). 

75. Is it fitting that the concluding scene of the play should be as- 
signed to the fairy characters? (pp. 88-90). 

Name the characters who utter the following lines and tell in what 
part of the play each passage occurs: — 

76. "The course of true love never did run smooth." 

77. 'T'll put a girdle round about the earth 

In forty minutes." 

78. "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; 

And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind." 

79. "The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, 

Doth glance from heavsn to earth, from earth to heaven." 

80. "For never anything can be amiss. 

When simpleness and duty tender it." 



I02 ANALYSIS AND QUESTIONS. 

8i. "In maiden meditation, fancy-free." 

82. "If then true lovers have been ever cross' d, 

It stands as an edict in destiny." 

83. "Lord, what fools these mortals be." 

84. "We cannot fight for love, as men may do; 

We should be woo'd, and were not made to woo." 

85. "As imagination bodies forth 

The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen 
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing 
A local habitation and a name." 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH 
LITERATURE 

By REUBEN POST HALLECK, M.A. (Yale), 
Louisville Male High School. Price, ^1.25 



HALLECK'S HISTORY OF ENGLISH LIT- 
ERATURE traces the development of that litera- 
ture from the earliest times to the present in a 
concise, interesting, and stimulating manner. Although the 
subject is presented so clearly that it can be readily com- 
prehended by high school pupils, the treatment is sufficiently 
philosophic and suggestive for any student beginning the 
study. 

^ The book is a history of literature, and not a mere col- 
lection of biographical sketches. Only enough of the facts 
of an author's life are given to make students interested in 
him as a personality, and to show how his environment 
affected his work. Each author's productions, their rela- 
tions to the age, and the reasons why they hold a position 
in literature, receive adequate treatment. 
^ One of the most striking features of the work consists in 
the way in which literary movements are clearly outlined at 
the beginning of each chapter. Special attention is given to 
the essential qualities which differentiate one period from 
another, and to the animating spirit of each age. The author 
shows that each period has contributed something definite 
to the literature of England. 

^ At the end of each chapter a carefully- prepared list of 
books is given to direct the student in studying the original 
works of the authors treated. He is told not only what to 
read, but also where to find it at the least cost. The book 
contains a special literary map of England in colors. 



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INTRODUCTION TO 
AMERICAN LITERATURE 

By BRANDER MATTHEWS, A.M., LL.B., Profes- 
sor of Literature, Columbia University. Price, «i.oo 



EX-PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT, in a most ap- 
preciative review in The Bookman ^ says : '« The 
book is a piece of work as good of its kind as any 
American scholar has ever had in his hands. It is just 
the kind of book that should be given to a beginner, be- 
cause it will give him a clear idea of what to read, and of 
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is much more than merely a book for beginners. Any 
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largely adopt Mr. Matthews' way of looking at things, 
for these simply w^ritten, unpretentious chapters are worth 
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writes." 

^ The book is amply provided with pedagogical features. 
Each chapter includes questions for review, bibliograph- 
ical notes, facsimiles of manuscripts, and portraits, while 
at the end of the volume is a brief chronology of American 
literature. 



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COMPOSITION-RHETORIC 

By STRATTON D. BROOKS, Superintendent of 
Schools, Boston, Mass., and MARIETTA HUB- 
BARD, formerly English Department, High School, 
La Salle, 111. Price, ^i.oo 



THE fundamental aim of this volume is to enable pupils 
to express their thoughts freely, clearly, and forcibly. 
At the same time it is designed to cultivate literary 
appreciation, and to develop some knowledge of rhetorical 
theory. The work follows closely the requirements of the 
College Entrance Examination Board, and of the New 
York State Education Department. 

^ In Part One are given the elements of description, narra- 
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treatment of the four forms of discourse already discussed is 
furnished in Part Two. In each partis presented a series of 
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pupil inspiration, and that confidence in himself which comes 
from the frequent repetition of an act. A single new princi- 
ple is introduced into each theme, and this is developed in 
the text, and illustrated by carefully selected examples. 
^ The pupils are taught how to correct their own errors, 
and also how to get the main thought in preparing their 
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^ The modern character of the illustrative extracts can not 
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usual attention is devoted to the treatment of argument. 



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A PUNCTUATION PRIMER 

By FRANCES M. PERRY, Associate Professor of 
Rhetoric and Composition, Wellesley College. 



THE Punctuation Primer is a manual of first principles 
or essentials simply and systematically presented; it 
is not an elaborate treatise on punctuation. It offers 
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^ The discussion is taken up under two main divisions: 
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^ In addition, several important related topics are treated, 
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forms for letters, the use of authorities in writing themes, 
the correction of themes, and the making of bibliographies. 
^ Throughout the carefully selected examples make clear 
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^ Though written primarily to meet the needs of college 
freshmen, the primer is an excellent manual for high schools. 

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THE MASTERY OF BOOKS 

By HARRY LYMAN KOOPMAN, A.M., Librarian 
of Brown University. Price, 90 cents 



IN this book Mr. Koopman, whose experience and 
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^ Pains are taken to provide the young student from the 
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the nature and value of that form of printed matter which 
forms the chief reading of the modern world — periodical 
literature. Methods of note- taking and of mnemonics 
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^ One of the most valuable chapters in the volume to 
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accordance with the author's new plan for the guidance 
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cated in notes. 



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ESSENTIALS IN HISTORY 



ESSENTIALS IN ANCIENT HISTORY . ^11.50 

From the earliest records to Charlemagne. By 
ARTHUR MAYER WOLFSON, Ph.D., First 
Assistant in History, DeWitt Clinton High School, 
New York 

ESSENTIALS IN MEDIEVAL AND MODERN 
HISTORY $i.so 

From Charlemagne to the present day. By SAMUEL 
BANNISTER HARDING, Ph.D., Professor of 
European History, Indiana University 

ESSENTIALS IN ENGLISH HISTORY . ^1.50 

From the earliest records to the present day. By 
ALBERT PERRY WALKER, A.M., Master in 
History, English High School, Boston 

ESSENTIALS IN AMERICAN HISTORY . ;^ i . 50 

From the discovery to the present day. By ALBERT 
BUSH NELL HART, LL.D., Professor of History, 
Harvard University 

THESE volumes correspond to the four subdivisions 
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partment. Each volume is designed for one year's work. 
Each of the writers is a trained historical scholar, famihar 
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^ The effort has been to deal only with the things which 
are typical and characteristic; to avoid names and details 
which have small significance, in order to deal more justly 
with the forces which have really directed and governed 
mankind. Especial attention is paid to social history. 
^ The books are readable and teachable, and furnish brief 
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No pains have been spared by maps and pictures to furnish 
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ESSENTIALS IN AMERICAN 
HISTORY 

From ti;e Discovery to the Present Day. By ALBERT 
BUSHNELL HART, LL.D., Professor of History, 
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PROFESSOR HART v^as a member of the Committee 
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•|| This volume reflects in an impressive manner the writer' s 
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GREEK AND ROMAN 
HISTORIES 

By WILLIAM C. MOREY, Professor of History and 

Political Science, University of Rochester 

Each, ^i.oo 



MOREY'S OUTLINES OF GREEK HISTORY, 
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% MOREY'S OUTLINES OF ROMAN HISTORY 
gives the history of Rome to the revival of the empire by 
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INTRODUCTORY COURSE 
IN EXPOSITION 

By FRANCES M. PERRY, Associate Professor of 
Rhetoric and Composition, Wellesley College. 

^i.oo 



EXPOSITION is generally admitted to be the most 
commonly used form of discourse, and its successful 
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Unfortunately, however, expository courses often fail to 
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■^ The aim of this book is to provide a systematized 
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The student will acquire from its study a clear under- 
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volume includes an interesting section on literary criticism. 
^ The method used is direct exposition, amply reinforced 
by examples and exercises. The illustrative matter is 
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first years of college. 



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INTRODUCTORY COURSE 
IN ARGUMENTATION 

By FRANCES M. PERRY, Instructor in English in 
Wellesley College. Price, ^i.oo 



AN INTRODUCTORY COURSE IN ARGU- 
MENTATION is intended for those who have not 
previously studied the subject, but while it makes a 
firm foundation for students who may wish to continue it, 
the volume is complete in itself. It is adapted for use in 
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^ The subject has been simplified as much as has been pos- 
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^y The volume is planned and proportioned with the ex- 
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^ The course is presented in three divisions ; the first re- 
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to finding the material to prove the proposition — research. 



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One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



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